Segura loses endorsements

Two West Valley officials have asked the Alex Segura, head of the anti-illegal-immigration group Utah Minuteman Project, to remove their endorsements from his campaign Web site.

Assistant city manager Paul Isaac and police chief Buzz Nelson said they never endorsed Segura in his bid to unseat Rep. Neal Hendrickson in House District 33.

Segura, however, said both officials had endorsed him after discussions on identity theft but rescinded their endorsements. Both names were removed from Segura's site Wednesday afternoon.

"If they are backing out because of political pressure, it's nothing new," Segura said of the endorsements he placed on his Web site after an April 3 meeting with Nelson.

Segura had initially discussed possible identity theft solutions with Nelson and Isaac in a March 28 meeting. But Isaac said his concern about identity theft did not translate into a political endorsement.

"When I saw my name on there, I just came unglued," said Isaac. "Ethically, you don't go out and publicly endorse anyone."

Nelson said he met with Segura to go over statistics on identity theft and get more information on possible programs to curb it.

"I'm just looking at it from a police perspective," he said. "If there is some program out there that would help, I'd look at it, but (Segura's) political ambitions have nothing to do with me."

Both Isaac and Nelson denied political pressure in asking Segura to withdraw the endorsement they found out about Wednesday after a Hispanic activist brought it to the attention of city officials. Both said it would be unethical for them to endorse any political candidate.

However, Segura maintained that the endorsements were rescinded, likely as a result of pressure from Hispanic activists.

"Police chief Buzz Nelson said he'd publicly endorse me," Segura said. He said Isaac's endorsement was implied, but that he understood Isaac "endorsed what I was doing" as a candidate and on identity theft.

He said recent protests that drew thousands in calls for citizenship for illegal immigrants are evidence of "intimidation tactics."

"It doesn't take a mathematician to add it up," Segura said. "The Hispanics felt they wanted to put the pressure on these two. . . . I'm going to go out and fight this. If I win or lose, I'm still going to win because I'm fighting the good fight."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com