Williams said her next step will be to send a letter to Buttars, and she said the NAACP will work on circulating a petition in his district and is considering a gathering at the Capitol.

Buttars, meanwhile, continues to plan his bid for re-election and says he is still considering purchasing full- page ads in both the Deseret Morning News and Salt Lake Tribune. He had put those ads on hold after scheduling the meeting with the NAACP.

According to his most recent financial disclosure statement filed with the state, Buttars continued to collect campaign contributions through 2007 and has about $68,000 on hand.

Buttars said Tuesday that he doesn't understand the offense taken at his use of the term lynch mob, and that he wouldn't apologize for that.

"I've never heard of it being a racial term," he said. "It just appears to me they're just looking for things."

However, Buttars said he's apologized, and continues to regret his choice of words during the Feb. 12 debate.

"I've apologized publicly how many times," Buttars said. "They don't care what I have to say ... I'm just moving on."

Salt Lake County Republican Party Chairman James Evans said that Buttars' comments, including his recent reference to lynching, were not racist.

"It is a 'hate lynch mob,"' Evans said, echoing Buttars' words.

"People decide who's a racist and who's not based on their agenda," Evans said. "This is a political agenda to silence a white, conservative male ... race is being used as a weapon to undermine Sen. Buttars' effectiveness."

Evans, who is black, attempted unsuccessfully two years ago to get former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson to apologize for criticizing Evans and others during an anti-war rally for their "slavish" support of President Bush.

Evans said he supported Buttars and had planned to stand by his side during a now-canceled rally at the Capitol.

Bush, speaking last week about nooses hanging from trees in protests and lynching jokes, acknowleged the racial undercurrents in such remarks.

"As a civil society, we must understand that noose displays and lynching jokes are deeply offensive," Bush said at a White House celebration of African-American history month. "They are wrong. And they have no place in America today."

Buttars said he hadn't been using the term jokingly, saying "by the end of last week it was ugly."

This hasn't been the first time Buttars' comments have raised concerns. During a radio interview in 2006, the senator had called the landmark Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation ruling "wrong to begin with."