Workman woes may spread to other races

The legal troubles for Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman could become political problems for fellow Republican Party candidates.

Although there is little concern that potential charges against Workman will sway voters in the high-profile presidential, congressional or state races, county Republicans worry that county council and legislative races could suffer from voters crossing party lines to vote against the mayor. That possibility is legitimate enough that Salt Lake County Republican Party Chairwoman Tiani Coleman said that it may force even those party members personally loyal to Workman to pull back from openly supporting the mayor, although doing so would essentially mean that the state's dominant party is surrendering a major elected office.

"Workman is our candidate, and if Workman ceases to be our candidate, we have no candidate," Coleman said.

A day after an independent commission found reasonable justification to charge Workman with felonious misappropriation, Coleman was still struggling with the dilemma that criminal charges would pose for the party, especially the central committee.

"On the one hand, we could fight this to the end because we don't like how Mayor Workman is being treated," Coleman said. "But on the other hand, there may be political implications if the general public thinks differently."

Besides losing the mayor's race, the biggest potential implication would be a general indictment of the Republican Party because of the charges against the mayor. By separating the party from the the mayor, Coleman said that it could remind people that the party does not condone illegal or unethical behavior.

"I don't think she committed a crime and that she will be exonerated," Coleman said. "I just want to make sure that the people know that the Republican Party stands for strong ethics and following the rules of law."

Salt Lake County Democratic Party Chairwoman Nicole Adams said that she expects that regardless of whether charges are filed, county voters will look to Democratic mayoral candidate Peter Corroon, not to the more conservative, former Republican and now independent Merrill Cook. While Cook has won in Salt Lake County, he has a much longer history of losing.

"We've had a chance to vote for Merrill numerous times, and we've passed it up," Adams said.

As normally reliable Republicans and independent voters start looking at Corroon, Adams suspected that they will also discover other Democratic candidates in county council and legislative races. If anything, they will want to find a way to balance the elected representation at all levels to better prevent more problems.