You know the old saying: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
State Rep. Mike Kennedy is feeling that this week.
For some unexplainable reason, Kennedy, who actually is a pretty good guy, went off the rails when he attempted to make some kind of political hay out of his U.S. Senate primary GOP opponent Mitt Romney’s condemnation of the rightwing, Southern Baptist preacher’s comments about Jews and Mormons.
Romney said the preacher was a religious bigot.
Kennedy decided to call up the preacher and apologize for Romney’s comments.
The preacher then went on national TV to say that Kennedy was apologizing for all Utahns for Romney’s remarks.
Turns out Kennedy did not apologize for all Utahns – he did so only for himself, as a snippet of Kennedy’s recording of the conversation with the preacher showed.
Doesn’t matter.
It was a huge mistake on Kennedy’s part.
For many Republicans in Utah, it was their first real introduction to Kennedy – a family doctor who also holds a law degree.
Kennedy surprised just about everyone who knew him when he announced he was giving up his Alpine state House seat this spring to challenge Romney for the Republican U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch.
Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, is the 800-pound gorilla in this contest.
Kennedy – or any of the other many Republicans running for this seat – have little to no chance of winning the June 26 Republican primary.
But, in what has become commonplace in internal Utah GOP politics in recent years, Kennedy – the conservative underdog – did well among the 4,000-odd (some really odd) state party delegates.
In the May convention, most of the delegates actually voted for Kennedy – Romney finishing second.
So many were asking: “Who is this upstart who bested the Goliath Romney” in the convention?
Yeah, he’s the guy who called up and apologized to the preacher who has time and again called the LDS faith a cult, saying Mormons will burn in Hell and can’t be saved by Jesus the Christ.
What is the possible political advantage to that?
Maybe Kennedy can get some anti-Mormon, evangelical campaign donations from out-of-state rightwing nutcakes.
But any such funding won’t offset the damage Kennedy gets from cozying up to a preacher who insults what is supposed to be Kennedy’s political base.
To beat the formerly-moderate Romney (certainly, that label is fair when he was governor of Massachusetts), Kennedy needs voters who are archconservative GOP, white Mormons.
Apologizing to a guy who says your voters are going to burn in Hell ain’t a winning strategy.
Romney, much beloved in Utah, doesn’t need any help from Kennedy. But he certainly got it this week.
Remember, back in 2012 when Romney was running against then-President Barack Obama, Romney was having troubles with evangelicals across the country, especially in the South.
For a long time – for technical religious interpretations I don’t pretend to understand – such evangelicals have said the LDS faith is un-Christian, outside of the normal faith of the Bible and thus a religious cult – not a true religion.
This is, of course, insulting to Latter-day Saints.
Romney has no love for some of these evangelicals – especially the preacher involved here.
So Romney, so to speak, let him have it – calling a spade a spade, or a bigot a bigot.
Kennedy would have been wise to just let this whole matter pass by.
Even if Kennedy – an archconservative Republican, white Mormon – was personally offended by Romney’s remarks, there was nothing to be gained here by throwing himself into the tiff.
Just the opposite.
The first impression many Utahns get of Kennedy is: “Who is this guy apologizing to a religious bigot on my behalf?”
Remember President Donald Trump saying there were “good people” on the side of white supremacists/Nazis protesters?
Kennedy may be a Trump supporter, even an admirer.
But this is not the place you want to be standing next to Trump.
There is a big difference in running for the Utah Legislature and playing with the big boys in a U.S. Senate race – one with national attention.
Mike Kennedy learned that hard lesson this week.
