Attorney General Candidates Seem to Differ Only On Specifics

Specifics like children's access to pornography and how far enforcement should be taken.

In a debate heard last week on KUER, Mark Shurtleff criticized his opponent Frank Mylar for wanting to prosecute librarians when children access inappropriate materials using libraries' Internet connections.

SHURTLEFF: "I've consistently heard my opponent say I'm gonna prosecute librarians under the current code. There are very very rare circumstatnces when a child accidentally or sometimes even intentionally happens upon pornography, but certainly there's no case where the librarians are encouraging or helping it."

MYLAR: "Certainly I would never prosecute anyone unless there was proper notice and so on and so forth."

Frank Mylar.

MYLAR: "If they said we don't care and I keep getting reports,and we get people with sworn affidavits and come in and say, 'Yes, they're allowing this,' then certainly that would be an open case to go after for prosecution."

Mylar says before it went that far, he would require libraries to keep a closer watch over their Internet connections-- and suggests a system like video stores or magazine shops now have to separate adults who have a right to see the material from children who don't.

MYLAR: "I'm not doing anything different, it's just making sure that the legalities of enforcement follow pace with technology. For some reason people throw up their hands and say, oh we can't keep this away from children. Well, you can."

Salt Lake County Commissioner Mark Shurtleff says measures like those are not needed.

SHURTLEFF: "But what we do in the county libraries and I think it's the constitutional way of handling things is to move the computers up front. We try to get the responsibility back to the parents where it belongs, to monitor their children and make sure they know the rules."

Both candidates agree the children should not have access to pornography. The two, both attorneys who have worked in the Attorney General's office, tend to agree when the issues of the election get that general.

On the issue of county rights-of-way across federal lands, both Mylar and Shurtleff agree that lawsuits are the best way to defend the rights of rural counties.

Both Republicans also took the chance to slam the previous attorney general, Democrat Jan Graham, on her handling of the counties' claim that the federal rights-of-way are really their roads.

Frank Mylar.

MYLAR: "This is another example where she does not want to take a position because she feels it's controversial. We've got to get rid of that. We've got to get someone in that office that will tell people straight up this is what the law is. She was never anywhere around because she was afraid of the issue, quite frankly. And I'm concerned because I feel as a good attorney you go down and gather evidence. I've actually flown over the areas. I've seen different maps, looked at the maps. I've looked at the federal government map and it doesn't match reality."

SHURTLEFF: This is going to be a successful action.

Mark Shurtleff.

SHURTLEFF: "The attorney general was not standing up to the federal government on these issues. The federal government's not going to do anything until we sue them and prove that these are our roads. And we're going to be able to do that. I have no doubt that we can and I don't think we need to bring 5,000, I think we'll do a couple hundred and the federal government will go, 'Whoa, we're losing, it's wasting a lot of money, uh, let's go ahead and recognize their rights of way.'"

Through their campaigns, the two candidates work hard to point out differences between them.

Mylar has made an issue of Shurtleff's endorsements, charging they represent close ties to other politicians and stresses his own independence. Shurtleff emphasizes his leadership skills and says he, not Mylar, has experience as an elected official and in managing a large staff and budget.

Weighing those differences will end tomorrow morning at 8 when voting begins in the Republican primary.

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