Outgoing GOP chair a bulldog to the end

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

James Evans couldn't sit still.

His GOP was losing ground. Not only had Democrats slipped ahead nationally because of Barack Obama's popular presidential bid, but they also were making headway in rock-red Utah.

Republicans faced no easy task -- not with headlines chronicling an ethics investigation into Rep. Greg Hughes and not with Democratic-sponsored radio ads branding GOP legislative leaders with words like "bribery, intimidation and corruption."

So Evans, the bulldoggish chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party who ends his second and final term today, pounced with a philosophy that has guided his partisan playbook.

"No challenge by the Democrats is going to go unanswered," he said. "They had to think, any time they came after Republicans in Salt Lake County, what was going to happen to them."

So with television cameras rolling and newspaper reporters scribbling, he announced last fall at Utah's Capitol that he had filed a complaint against Hughes' challenger, Lisa Johnson, for failing to register as a lobbyist.

"They're the ones talking about full disclosure and trying to shine the light of day on ethics," Evans then argued. "Here is an example where [Johnson] should exemplify what she's advocating."

--

Combative tack » That complaint reflected the combative, and often inflammatory, tack that made Evans one of the highest-profile party operatives in Utah.

After years of shepherding the county GOP and raising the hackles of Democratic candidates -- "He scared the living crud out of me," recently re-elected Democratic County Councilman Randy Horiuchi conceded -- Evans will pass on party leadership today during the Republican County convention at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy.

Evans leaves a headline-rich legacy: He cried racism when Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson described Evans and like-minded GOP faithful as showing "slavish" obedience to former President George W. Bush; he peddled a spliced videotape to media outlets in 2006 showing Democratic Salt Lake County sheriff candidate Jim Winder apparently popping off about getting to a crime scene quickly to "give an a-- kicking"; and he questioned whether the NAACP's Salt Lake chapter had violated its nonprofit status by opposing Chris Buttars' re-election after the West Jordan senator made racially charged comments.

His own party has stood beside him, even rejecting his resignation in the weeks after November's election when Democrats picked up a majority-making seat on the Salt Lake County Council, ousted House Speaker Greg Curtis and saw their presidential candidate carry the county for the first time in four decades.

But his pull-no-punches approach to politicking also made him a polarizing figure. Opponents described him as a man who overstepped the line between aggressive campaigning and "dirty politics" -- a characterization Evans vigorously rejects.

"James Evans never let the truth get in the way of a good lie," said Democratic Salt Lake City Prosecutor Sim Gill, whom Evans accused of a "deliberate and intentional violation" of campaign-finance rules during the heated 2006 district-attorney race for leaving out occupations and employers for some donors (an omission he later corrected).

---

Not shy of controversy » Perhaps the most memorable -- and most controversial -- of his election-year "hail Marys" came in the 2006 sheriff's race. Just two days before the election, Evans pitched a heavily edited training video to reporters, hoping to turn away attention from GOP Sheriff Kennard's golf habits -- revelations of the incumbent's frequent outings threatened to undermine his campaign. The tapes seemed to show Winder wanting to rough up, and even shoot, people at a crime scene.

Winder defended himself (and ultimately won the race by 17 percentage points), saying that his quotes were taken out of context and that he actually was role-playing.

Evans' tactics "came awfully close to the line of really being dirty politics," University of Utah political scientist Matthew Burbank said. "They did not help the party. Many voters could have looked at that and said, 'That doesn't look like reasonable politics at all.' "

Even today, Evans stands behind the tapes (though he wished they would have surfaced earlier in the campaign), saying that a review of those hours-long training videos would bear out the truth of his message. He noted that a media specialist at the Sheriff's Office stood by the allegations in a TV interview.

--

Savvy, unapologetic » Whether his maneuvers were right or wrong, Evans has proven himself a savvy strategist and unapologetic defender of the Republican ranks. Under his four-year watch, the county party raised $650,000 in donations -- a 67 percent jump from the $390,000 amassed during the previous four years.

"He was willing to stand and defend the good names of the men and women who were willing to run under the banner of the Republican Party," Utah Republican Party Chairman Stan Lockhart said. "If the opposition is going to bring a battle to you, you want to have James Evans on your team."

Hughes can attest to that. When Democrats slapped his campaign, Evans returned the blows. "Sometimes it is hard to find people who can be aggressive back. But James is built that way."

Not surprisingly, Evans' style earned him the distaste of Democrats. Weston Clark, chairman of the Salt Lake County Democrats, said Evans focused more on attacks than on constructive dialogue.

"He kept crying foul and making charges that were outrageous or exaggerated," Clark said. "That never did anything productive for the county as a whole."

Evans insists he merely pointed out "hypocrisies" within the Democratic Party. "If voters are starting to look in that direction, you have to explain to voters what they are looking at."

Behind the scenes, Evans also has actively advocated for the state's black community. He pushed for increased voter registrations and civic involvement among African-Americans and worked alongside the state's Black Advisory Council to expand benefits for the elderly, promote financial literacy and provide scholarships for minority students.

"We very much love our Republican brother," said Debra Charleston, a Democrat and the state's director of black affairs. While the two don't always agree ideologically, Charleston described Evans as an unwavering advocate for Utah's black minority.

"If he believes in something," Charleston added, "he is the type of person who will fight to the bitter end for it."

So what's next for the outgoing chairman? "It would be nice," Evans chuckled, "to get a breather."

No cameras. No reporters.

jstettler@sltrib.com" Target="_BLANK">jstettler@sltrib.com