This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Democratic attorney general candidate Greg Skordas' political fate may have more to do with his defense of Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman than his offense against Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
"You're tainted, you know. I may vote Libertarian," voter Nancy Cooper told Skordas the other day following an appearance at the Salt Lake City Main Library.
Cooper isn't alone.
Skordas estimates the Workman case has cut his fund raising about in half. And it has driven away activist Democrats who normally rally to the cause.
On the other hand, Republicans aren't switching sides.
"I wish I had a dollar for every Republican who's come up to me during the race and said, 'Wow, we really like you. We'd like to support you, but we can't -- we're Republicans,' " says Skordas. "So [the Workman case] has helped me with a group of people who can't vote for me."
At the same time, Shurtleff has stepped outside his party lines to oppose the proposed constitutional amendment toughening Utah's ban on same-sex marriage; to lobby for passage of hate-crimes legislation; and to fight to keep a law allowing undocumented workers to obtain driver licenses.
Shurtleff acknowledges that all of those stands have gotten him in hot water with conservative elements of his party. But Republicans, even those grumbling about his actions, appear to be sticking with him. And independents and even some Democrats are attracted to his independence.
"I don't think he likes a fight, but he doesn't back down from one, either," says spokesman Paul Murphy.
Asked about threats of retribution from GOP legislators or others angered about his opposition to the gay-marriage amendment, Shurtleff declines to say much.
"I don't want to give any more reason to anybody who might be inclined toward retribution to take retribution," says Shurtleff.
He insists his opposition won't hamper his office in defending the amendment from threatened lawsuits, saying he has made only general criticisms and stayed away from getting into legal analysis.
"If it passes, obviously, I take the arguments on the other side and do the best I can to defend it because the people have spoken at that point," says Shurtleff.
Skordas is skeptical about the image of Shurtleff as the maverick Republican besieged on both sides for doing the right thing.
"It's the way he spins things. He's the everyman," says the Democrat. "It's why he's a successful politician. He's just a disingenuous successful politician. But that's how you get elected."
Shurtleff for the most part has been able to ignore or dismiss his challenger's barbs. He prefers to talk about the future and his full agenda for the next four years.
Among his top priorities is increasing pay for attorneys in his office, securing millions of dollars in federal aid to establish a "cold case unit" to use DNA technology to solve stagnant cases, and pressing forward on efforts to combat identity theft.
Skordas criticizes Shurtleff for spending too much tax money on hiring outside attorneys and on his failure to have an overall crime plan -- a lapse Skordas claims has contributed to an increasing crime rate in the state.
"We have a sense in Utah -- and I don't mean to be a fear-monger -- that we're very safe here and we're doing a good job and whatever. But according to the FBI we're now the 18th most dangerous state in the nation and we're climbing," says Skordas.
Shurtleff argues the numbers show a very different picture: Drug labs have been shut down by the dozens, the high-tech network to alert police and citizens to missing or abducted children is working as designed, and his office is teaming up with local law enforcement to attack sexual exploitation of minors on the Internet.
Overall, he says, "Utah is still as low as it's been in 70 years in street crime."