Utah GOP asks backers to call Rocky and object to his protest

The Utah Republican Party is asking its supporters to call Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and tell him they disapprove of his scheduled participation Wednesday in an anti-war rally preceding a visit by President Bush.

Deseret Morning News graphic Scheduled rallies Requires Adobe Acrobat.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said Monday that they both planned to greet the president and believed in showing respect for the office.

The party put out radio ads Monday asking people to call Anderson and "tell him to stop embarrassing Utah." The mayor's office had received 183 calls by late afternoon.

The office hired three temporary workers to staff the phone lines, and they took calls from throughout Utah and even some from out of state, one of the temporary workers said.

Jeff Hartley, executive director of the Utah Republican Party, hatched the idea as a way of telling the Salt Lake mayor that he thinks Anderson doesn't represent the majority of Utahns' opinions.

"We are being besieged by phone calls from people angry about Rocky's actions, asking us what we were going to do or what they could do as individuals to have a voice," Hartley said. "We decided we'd give them an education to make their voice heard in Rocky."

Anderson is slated to speak Wednesday at a rally that will also feature Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq in 2004. The rally, which is being organized by a coalition of activists who oppose President Bush's actions and the Iraq war, is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Several other rallies with a variety of messages also are scheduled for Wednesday.

Hartley's radio ad tells listeners that Sheehan's beliefs are anti-American and that her "cut-and-run strategy" is an effort "to convince you that America should retreat."

Sheehan's spokeswoman did not return several requests for comment by phone and e-mail Monday.

Anderson and his spokesman Patrick Thronson also did not return phone and e-mail inquiries.

Hartley said he wasn't concerned about the extra cost to the mayor's office for hiring people to answer the phones.

"If that encumbers the city that he represents at all, I'd say that's Rocky's fault," Hartley said. "I have no sympathy for him if his office has to incur some financial responsibility to take all the phone calls from people who don't like what he's doing."

Speaking Monday to the Deseret Morning News editorial board, Bennett said he believes that everyone, including Anderson, should have respect for the office of the U.S. president.