Buttars Will Run Again … Despite ‘Lynch Mob’

Sen. Chris Buttars, R-South Jordan, announced Monday that he will not resign from the Utah State Senate and will seek reelection this year.

The two-term senator was asked to resign by Utah NAACP president Jeanetta Williams after he called a bill he disliked a “black baby … a dark ugly thing.”

Buttars apologized before the senate after Sen. Ross Romero approached Senate Chair John Valentine complaining of Buttars’ “breach of decorum.”

Articles over the past several days in the daily newspapers have been highly critical of Buttars, especially his comments during bills against Utah’s gay and lesbian community. A photograph on the front page of the Salt Lake Tribune shows Buttars looking at lesbian activist Kristy Gleaves with utter disgust.

Buttars responded Monday that a “lynch mob” was after him, apparently unaware of the racial undertones to that phrase. He blamed gay activists for orchestrating the reaction against him.

Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah, said that the NAACP was the only organization spearheading a reaction against Buttars.

“Obviously, they have concerns about what Sen. Buttars said,” Thompson told the Deseret Morning News. “Once again, Sen. Buttars gets to point at the gay community, … it’s something else to blame on the gay community.”

Buttars and the Utah Eagle Forum are planning a rally on Capitol Hill Wednesday in his support. The group has printed T-shirts with the slogan, “We Support Chris Buttars.”