George Pyle: Curtis would be vulnerable in a real democracy

John Curtis should be in a lot more trouble than he is.

The half-term Republican congressman from Utah’s 3rd District more or less came clean a few weeks ago and admitted that, back when he was the mayor of Provo, he let that city’s last police chief resign with one of those to-spend-more-time-with-his-family cover stories rather than tell everyone the truth.

The truth being that Curtis and his human resources people had come to the conclusion that the chief, John King, was all-too-credibly accused of more than one instance of sexual harassment in Provo, and had left a previous job under a cloud of suspicion for having allegedly committed sexual assault. A cloud that neither the city nor its expensive headhunters had picked up in its screening process.

In world where revelations and accusations of sexual impropriety, harassment and assault have suddenly brought low more than a few rich, famous and powerful men, having this admitted goof-up on his resume might be seriously damaging, even fatal, to Curtis’ chances of winning a full term this November.

In a two-party state, the baggage could end Curtis’ chances, even though the worst you can say about him is that he was — and has apologized for being — an enabler, not an offender. Curtis himself told The Tribune’s editorial board in late March — when we pressed him to reflect on the political impact the matter might cause — that the failing would “leave a mark” on his reputation and campaign.

But in a state, and a district, as red as Utah and its 3rd, running for the nomination of the party that has elevated, and continues to support, a man whom we know to have bragged about his ability to assault women with impunity, Curtis’ history on sexual abuse seems positively quaint.

And the rival candidate could be in the best position to benefit from that failure, to the degree that Utah voters think it is a failure, might be the person least likely to benefit from the #MeToo movement.

The challenger facing Curtis in the June 26 Republican primary is former state Rep. Chris Herrod. Herrod has a lot of planks in his campaign platform — build a wall, repeal Obamacare, AR-15s are less dangerous than STDs — but women’s rights is not prominent among them.

At least not yet.

Herrod’s whole act is that he is more conservative than thou. His brief against Curtis, in last year’s special election and now, is that the incumbent is not red meat enough on issues like health care and public lands. Herrod did well enough at the state convention last weekend to avoid elimination, but his chances are rated as poor in the much larger, and more moderate, pool of registered Republican voters.

A more mainstream candidate might be able to cut into that gap if he grabbed the mantle of #MeToo and pummeled Curtis with it morning, noon and night. Somehow, that doesn’t seem Herrod’s style.

The issue might be a better tool in the hands of the Democratic candidate — either Kent Moon or James Courage Singer. (As this is written Friday, we don’t know if either will capture the nomination outright at Saturday’s Democratic convention or if a primary will be required.) If, that is, the district weren’t hopelessly gerrymandered to favor a Republican outcome.

How a mayor deals with his police chief in a time of scandal now seems to be like a figure skater’s compulsory exercises. Something you have to show you can pull off before moving on to the free-style rounds.

When Ralph Becker was running for a third term as mayor of Salt Lake City, a sexual harassment scandal led Becker to fire the previously much-respected Police Chief Chris Burbank in an unseemly hurry. Not because Burbank was harassing anyone, but because he had dealt with an underling who had been accused of bad behavior in a way other than Becker had instructed. And it took Becker way too long to notice.

The whole mess was damaging to Becker’s reputation as a manager and, given how close his race against now Mayor Jackie Biskupski was, may well have been the difference. It certainly was key to The Tribune editorial board’s decision to back Biskupski over Becker.

And now the new mayor of Sandy, Kurt Bradburn, has fired his police chief, Kevin Thacker, in yet another harassment scandal. It seems like a strong and necessary action, at least according to a new report commissioned by the city. Though Sandy’s citizenry, and city council, have been filled in on far too few of the details to know how to judge the mayor’s judgment.

A mayor maintaining his or her authority over a police chief is probably one of the more difficult parts of the job — what with those top cops adorned in black uniforms and impressive insignia of rank. But how well they do it is a fair yardstick for how well they do their jobs over all.

George Pyle, The Tribune’s editorial page editor, has never fired a police chief. Though he did once reassign a sports editor. gpyle@sltrib.com