A recent campaign flap in the dysfunctional town of Eagle Mountain demonstrated the unique hold that the deeply conservative county's culture has on the brand of politics played there, and even the way partisan operatives ply their dirty tricks.

The hijinks also illustrated how politicians in Eagle Mountain, where Republican Mormons hold sway, continue to underestimate the sense of fairness and reasonableness that Utah County folks often display when faced with a shell game designed to play on their faith.

Days before Tuesday's election, Cedar Valley's local newspaper, the Crossroads Journal, ran a half-page ad highlighting mayoral candidate Richard Culbertson's divorce and comparing it to his opponent Heather Jackson's "great marriage."

The ad had pictures of each candidate, with the caption under Culbertson blaring "Divorced," and the caption under Jackson cooing "Great Marriage." The copy below said: "If he can't keep a marriage together, how can he bring the city together?"

A cheap shot designed to play on the family values so dear to LDS voters? Perhaps the objective was more sinister. The look of the ad that appeared to be slamming Culbertson bore an eerie similarity to one that ran in a Utah County weekly 17 years ago and that symbolized one of Utah's most infamous political missteps.

Little-known attorney Bill Orton was running for the open 3rd Congressional District seat as a Democrat against popular Republican Karl Snow, a well-known professor at Brigham Young University who had served the Provo area for several years as a state senator. The district was arguably the most-Republican in the United States.

Then an ad appeared just a few days before the election. It had a picture of Karl Snow and his large family, complete with children, their spouses, his grandchildren and smiling wife. The ad also featured a picture of Bill Orton and "his family." Orton, single at the time, was alone.

Those who placed the ad on behalf of the Snow campaign thought they would score big with Utah County Republicans. Plus, there was the implied suggestion about the then-bachelor Orton's sexuality.

The ad boomeranged and Orton won in a landslide, one of the most surprising electoral upsets in the country that November. I talked to numerous LDS Republicans in Utah County after the 1990 election who told me it was the first time in their lives they had voted for a Democrat. But they did it to show their utter distaste for a sleazy campaign tactic.

Fast forward to 2007 and it turns out that some detective work by a couple of computer geeks found that the source of the ad making fun of Culbertson's divorce was, in fact, Culbertson's own campaign worker. That revelation came three days before the election. Michael Karr, who first denied involvement, finally admitted to placing the ad through an e-mail account. He claimed it was intended as a parody on information circulated about Culbertson's real estate license having been revoked.

But the memory of how Utah County voters reacted to the cheap shot against Orton, demonstrating their sense of fair play, is still fresh. Would they react the same way to an apparent cheap shot against Culbertson?

Not only are the voters in Utah County more concerned about fair play than politicians give them credit for, but they are also smarter than politicians credit them for being. Example: They rejected the voucher law their so-called legislative representatives so desperately promoted.

Culbertson lost to Jackson in a landslide, though I doubt that his loss - in a community electing its 10th mayor in 11 years after several mayoral scandals and resignations - had anything to do with his divorce.