Recorded threat draws anger in governor race

The Utah GOP governor's race turned angry Thursday when Jon Huntsman Jr.'s campaign released a tape recording of a Nolan Karras campaign volunteer making political threats against the Huntsman family.

The tape was also turned over to the state attorney general.

"We perceive this as a warning, a threat; it has no place in this campaign," said Jason Chaffetz, Huntsman campaign manager.

The Karras supporter who left the recorded telephone message is Spencer Stokes, a well-known lobbyist and campaign consultant and former executive director of the Utah Republican Party.

A week ago Wednesday, Stokes called another well-known lobbyist and GOP insider, Doug Foxley, who supports Huntsman, and left a message on his cell phone: "Just tell Jon (Huntsman) Sr. to be warned that if you guys (in the Huntsman Jr. campaign) decide you are going to go negative on Nolan, hell hath no fury. We have a lot of s--- on Jon Huntsman Sr. and Jr. that we've not used. But if he is going to play that game, we will play that one, too."

Chaffetz, who called media reporters Thursday and played the tape for them, said Jon Huntsman Sr. is not part of the campaign and shouldn't be in the discussion at all.

Stokes has apologized, saying Karras had no idea that he had made the call to Foxley.

"I'm a passionate guy about politics, so is Doug; we're friends. If I had recorded all of the calls I've heard over the years, there would be a lot of embarrassed people in this town. I'm embarrassed today. I want to help Nolan, but I'm not helping him today," Stokes said.

While saying the call was wrong, Stokes said, "There is plenty of dirt on the Huntsmans. The difference is, Nolan would never do that (release a tape of a private phone conversation) to Jon Huntsman."

Chaffetz said Foxley played the tape for him Tuesday night, after taking a week to consider what he should do with it. "After Jon Sr. and Jr. heard the tape" Wednesday night, "we decided to release it to the media."

Foxley did not return messages left on his voice mail Thursday.

Since 1987, when one of the Huntsman children was kidnapped, then recovered safely, the Huntsmans don't take any kind of threat lightly, said Chaffetz, adding that he doesn't think the tape was a physical threat but a political one.

But it was turned over to the attorney general's office. In turning the tape over to authorities, it was treated like "other threats that unfortunately come in all too often" to the billionaire Huntsman family, Chaffetz said.

But Stokes' message may be as much about the bitter politics in Utah's ongoing hazardous waste fight as the governor's contest.