This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Sandy • They had different views on the minimum wage and on federally backed student loans — not to mention the presidential campaign — but the issue that dominated the debate Monday between Rep. Mia Love and Doug Owens was glossy pieces of mail.
Owens, the Democrat, says Love spent an exorbitant amount of taxpayer money — $274,800 — on thinly veiled campaign advertisements over the past two years. The Republican said the mailers, which get approved by a bipartisan House panel to make sure they are not political, are necessary to communicate with the people she represents.
No other topic during the hourlong 4th District showdown, sponsored by the Utah Debate Commission, led to a tense clash.
"There's no issue with somebody sending a mailer to announce a town meeting; that's not what those mailers were about for one second. Those were self-promoting campaign pieces that were paid for by taxpayers," Owens said. "My opponent just tries to excuse that by saying both Republicans and Democrats do it. That's one of the problems back there. I would never do something just because everyone does it. Those are a waste of money, and I would do away with it."
Love said Owens never had a problem when Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, used to send similar mailers, and she said it was "absolutely dishonest" to criticize her for communicating with voters. Then she tried to dismiss the issue.
"This is just something he is using for his own benefit because he's got nothing else," she said.
This is the second campaign between these candidates. Love won the seat in the 2014 election, besting Owens by about 5 percentage points. She has a significant lead in recent polls, including the Salt Lake Tribune-Hinckley Institute of Politics poll that showed her up by 18 percentage points in mid-September. Owens says the surveys were conducted before the campaigns launched a steady stream of TV ads, some of his about the campaign mailers, while Love's ads hit him on his involvement in the lawsuit that delayed Legacy Highway and on donations to then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential race.
During the debate, Love criticized Owens for saying he'd vote for Clinton this year, bringing up the scandal involving her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.
"This is a person who has lied to the American people," Love said of Clinton.
Owens didn't defend his party's nominee or mention her name.
"I've indicated how I'm going to vote. It is more important how I'm going to vote when I get to Washington," he said. "I think people back in Washington are entirely too stuck on party labels."
Love isn't voting for Clinton or Trump, she says, especially after a video emerged Friday, showing him talking in a derogatory manner about women. She's looking at minor-party candidates.
Some of the questions came from moderator Ken Verdoia, while others were asked by students at Salt Lake Community College. One such question focused on the minimum wage.
Love is against boosting the federal minimum wage higher than its current rate of $7.25 per hour, arguing that "artificially raising that wage" would be a burden for businesses, leading to the loss of jobs for some lower-wage employees.
Owens, who works as an attorney, said he understands that perspective and didn't discount that some people might lose their jobs if Congress increased the minimum wage, but he also said raising the wage increases consumer spending, which boosts the economy.
"There is a lot of evidence to that effect to back up what Mitt Romney said, that it is time to consider raising the minimum wage," he said, referring to the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. "And that's what I want to do."
Owens didn't indicate where he'd set the minimum wage, though he did say where he wants to set the interest rate on federally backed student loans: zero. He also said the federal government should go after "predatory" for-profit colleges. Those two initiatives, he says, would reduce the cost of higher education. Love took a different tact. She wants to return to a system in which private lenders compete against the government to provide loans to college students, and she wants to steer some students away from four-year colleges to other education options.
The freshman congresswoman said being the only woman in the state's six-person congressional delegation and a woman in a male dominated field is "incredibly difficult to deal with." She elaborated with reporters after the debate.
"I have to always be incredibly careful who I go to dinner with, when I go, so there is not someone taking a picture," she said. "It is important for me to make sure I'm an example for all of those young girls out there who are aspiring to do something bigger, outside of their community."
She also said: "We as a country need to make sure that we have representation that mirrors the constituents who are out there."
Both candidates said women should make as much as men working in the same job, but Love didn't think there was a role for Congress in fixing the wage gap, while Owens argued that it is already illegal for companies to pay women less and that law should be more vigorously enforced.
This was the only scheduled debate between the candidates in Utah's most watched congressional race.
Twitter: @mattcanham