This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
If Aesop were living today in Utah, state GOP Chairman James Evans might be the inspiration for a sequel to the "Boy Who Cried Wolf."
But instead of the predator the young shepherd repeatedly cried out as threatening his flock to play a joke on the townspeople, Evans' oft-repeated bogus demon is "bigot, bigot, bigot" when referring to rival Democrats.
His latest stunt came when he called on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Weinholtz to cancel a fundraiser at a performance of Salt Lake Acting Company's "Saturday's Voyeur."
I left for a vacation in Ireland at the beginning of the month, but one of the columns I prepared to run while I was gone questioned the political wisdom of holding a fundraiser during a play satirizing Mormon culture when most Utahns are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Evans jumped on the issue, criticizing Weinholtz for offending Mormons through "bigotry." He urged Weinholtz to cancel the event because the play is about "religious bigotry" and "is repugnant, especially in the current religious and political climate."
Parody is not bigotry, but when you're a master of political spin, who cares?
In fact, Nancy Borgenicht, co-creator of "Saturday's Voyeur," got her inspiration from her mother, Helen Sandack, who decades ago wrote and produced "The Temple Follies," a satirical play poking fun at her own Jewish faith to raise money for the synagogue.
The cry of "bigotry" when referring to Democrats, however, seems to be a pattern with Utah's Republican Party boss.
Evans, when he was the Salt Lake County GOP chairman, became apoplectic in 2006 after then-Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson used the word "slavish" to describe Republicans' blind obedience to then-President George W. Bush's foreign policy in Iraq.
Evans, an African-American who has criticized Democrats for using the race card, said Anderson's use of the word slavish was a direct affront because it referred to slaves.
Anderson blew off the criticism, noting that Evans was trying to create a scenario of bigotry that didn't exist.
In 2008, Evans, just days before the election, shopped to reporters a heavily edited tape of Salt Lake County sheriff's candidate Jim Winder leading a training session for deputies.
The tape seemed to depict the Democrat as a bully and racist as he talked about "kicking a—" and wanting to shoot people at a crime scene.
Edited from the tape was the part in which Winder said he was role-playing to show the deputies how not to behave.
Some news outlets were duped and did stories on the tape, but most reported it as misleading.
Winder easily won the election.
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Twilight Zone • Just before I left on vacation, I covered a fundraiser for Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton and her brother, legislative candidate Mike Winder.
It was a talent revue of sorts, featuring mostly Republican politicians, along with a Democrat, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams.
I noted that during one performance, when a group of mayors from Salt Lake County tried to rap, South Jordan Mayor David Alvord mentioned me from the stage as everyone's favorite fiction writer and called on the crowd to give me a hand.
The scene was so bizarre, it deserves some elaboration.
I have taken jabs at Alvord for some of his eccentric behavior — including his latest obsession to make a new city flag despite nearly unanimous opposition from the City Council — and this was his way of hitting back.
But here's why the whole thing was eerie.
On his direction, most of the patrons turned to look at me in the back and applauded. Really? A crowd at a political fundraiser applauding a journalist covering the event?
The patrons seemed to have puzzled looks on their faces as if wondering, "Why am I clapping?" It was like the time Utah House members gave a standing ovation, without realizing what they were doing, to their majority leader right after he had admitted to having inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old girl.
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Correction • The State Farm insurance agency that provided free coffee to the gay-owned Coffee Garden near the Ninth and Ninth business district two days after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orland Fla., was the Juan Amoros agency. I had a different agent's name in the column Friday about folks doing good deeds for others.