Wilson blasts Rocky over issue of kids

Salt Lake City mayoral candidate Jenny Wilson shot back at Mayor Rocky Anderson on Sunday, saying it's wrong for him to claim a mother or father with small children can't be a good mayor and a good parent.

One of Wilson's supporters said Sunday that Anderson had made clearly sexist statements — and that his comments show that "sexism still exists even in our most progressive public servants."

Wilson was responding to an op-ed piece Anderson wrote in Sunday's Salt Lake Tribune, where the mayor defended himself over the issue of working mayors with small children. Anderson said he had to respond, claiming that Wilson, her step-mother, City Weekly editor Holly Mullen, and her father, former mayor Ted Wilson, had inaccurately repeated what Anderson claimed were "private" comments made to Ted Wilson about being a mayor and family person at the same time.

Jenny Wilson — in a statistical tie with fellow candidates Dave Buhler and Ralph Becker in a new Deseret Morning News poll — said at a City Hall press conference that she was disappointed in Anderson's "11th hour attack" on her.

Wilson came to the press conference without her two small children or husband, but she had around 50 supporters backing her up, many mothers or fathers with small kids in hand.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon was also there with one of his small children.

In his Tribune piece, Anderson acknowledged he had said the Salt Lake mayor's job was too demanding to do it and have small kids at the same time. He said he thought his conversation was private, but in any case it applied to either a father or mother and was not aimed at any specific candidate for mayor.

Anderson said he later saw some of his comments (which leaned heavily toward working mothers as opposed to working fathers) on Mullen's blog. That, in turn, later led to a Tribune columnist writing about the issue, and Anderson said he had to now defend himself publicly.

However, Wilson's finance chairman, Donald Dunn, said at the press conference he found the timing of Anderson's op-ed piece odd. "This all happened two months ago, and Rocky writes this thing and the Tribune runs it the weekend before the (Tuesday) primary election. Why now?"

Wilson said she believes Anderson was singling her out, despite his claims the comments referred to any father or mother seeking public office.