Two years after it took a week to certify that Democrat Ben McAdams had unseated Republican Rep. Mia Love, Utah's 4th District appears headed for another "squeaker" race for Congress.
According to the RMG Research poll completed last week, Republican Burgess Owens — one-time pro-football safety and, as supporters call him, "a conservative who happens to be Black" — leads McAdams 46% to 45%.
The tightness of their race has focused attention on U.S. Army veteran and Libertarian candidate John Molnar, who drew 3% in the RMG survey and may therefore emerge as the "spoiler" in the contest.
"The airwaves are saturated in the 4th District," former Oklahoma Republican Rep. Ernest Istook, who now teaches in Utah, told Newsmax. "It's common to have four ads in every TV break about this race, whether from the candidates themselves or by other groups. And I do mean every commercial break. Tons and tons of money is being spent. Opposing commercials are played back-to-back-to-back-to-back."
Istook noted that the anti-McAdams ads "typically come from outside groups, such as cookie-cutter 'votes with [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi 85% of the time' or 'too weak to stand up against Pelosi,' or against 'Chinese religious persecution,' or that as a county official he helped raise taxes and overpaid his staff."
McAdams' ads, he said, feature endorsements of him from "people who say they are Republicans."
Owens, who played ten seasons as a safety for the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders, launched a group known as Second Chance 4 Youth to assist troubled young people. He is a frequent Fox News commentator, where he has spoken out against the Affordable Care Act and reparations for slavery, and hailed President Donald Trump as a friend of Black Americans.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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