Campaign ad puts Eagle Mountain in spotlight

Two members of the Eagle Mountain City Council convened an emergency press conference Saturday afternoon to address an election advertisement.

The advertisement, which ran in the Crossroads Journal Thursday, Nov. 1, featured photos of Richard Culbertson and Heather Jackson, the two candidates for mayor.

Under the photo of Culbertson, the phrase "Been Divorced!" was printed, and under Jackson it said "Great Marriage." The bottom of the ad featured photos of City Council candidates Donna Burnham, Eric Cieslak, Ryan Ireland and Nathan Ochsenhirt with photos of their families, all with "Great Marriage" printed underneath.

Between the photos of the mayoral candidates and the City Council candidates, the ad says, "Culbertson was divorced. Heather Jackson has a great marriage. Who would you rather trust to run our city? If he can't even keep a marriage together, how can he bring the city together? Vote wisely!"

The ad also had a photo of City Councilman David Lifferth with a paragraph saying he spent time finding information about Culbertson and implying that the ad was printed by him.

Lifferth and Jackson, who is currently a city councilwoman, held the press conference to inform residents that the advertisement was not endorsed by either of them. Candidates named in the advertisement wrote statements about their disappointment in and disdain for the advertisement.

Jackson said the advertisement implied that divorced people couldn't be a good mayor or City Council member, a thought she said is misdirected and wrong. She insisted she had nothing to do with the advertisement, as did Lifferth.

"We (Eagle Mountain) have enough bad press," Jackson said. "It needs to stop."

Jackson also said the ad was childish and inappropriate. The advertising manager of the Crossroads Journal said the ad had been given to them anonymously and was paid for in cash.

"We still don't know who placed the advertisement," Lifferth said. The Journal sent Lifferth the e-mail that the ad came from, and Lifferth found the name of the creator of the e-mail. Lifferth said the person was loosely connected with a man who worked with Culbertson's campaign.

Culbertson said he thought Jackson and Lifferth implied he had put out the message to make it look like Jackson had sent it. He also maintained he didn't know who created the ad. He said he thought the elections shouldn't be about personal issues but that his experience with the current elections had not been about his platform.

"They're (his opponents) are attempting to reach to emotions rather than talking about the issues," he said. "Personal issues shouldn't be in the forefront."

Elections will be held Tuesday.

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E-mail: csmith@desnews.com