The Utah Debate Commission is blaming supporters of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) (right above) for alleged disruptive behavior during the incumbent’s Oct. 17 exchange with independent challenger Evan McMullin (left) at Utah Valley University.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Debate Commission (UDC) is throwing out its own rule book in the wake of the raucous 2022 debate between Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and independent challenger Evan McMullin.
An independent review of that Oct. 17 face-off revealed that the Lee campaign was able to game the ticketing process at Utah Valley University in Orem to ensure that the audience was weighted in favor of its candidate and to disrupt the debate.
“The Utah Debate Commission recognizes that existing guardrails for the ticketing process are no longer adequate to ensure a peaceful debate,” UDC members said in a public statement released Jan. 10.
“We will address this going forward so that all parties – from the (hosting) universities to the campaigns – operate from an equal footing.”
The UDC debate was hosted by newsman Doug Wright, who admonished the audience early on to hold their reactions to allow the candidates to make their cases without interruption.
Despite that, the exchange between Lee and McMullin was occasionally marred by jeers, cheers and applause, making for a lively event compared to more staid debates hosted by the UDC for candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Wright was never able to get the UVU audience fully under control.
Embarrassed by the lack of decorum at that event, the UDC conducted what its members called “an independent, internal review” of the ticketing process at UVU led by UDC treasurer Phil Cooper of the accounting firm Cooper-Savas.
Although Cooper could not find any “inside source” who tipped the Lee campaign, his review found that Lee supporters had been monitoring UVU’s online ticketing site, waiting for the debate tickets to become available.
“Once the tickets were available,” Cooper said, “many supporters of Senator Lee reserved tickets. All tickets were gone in under two hours.”
Without naming names, the debate commission has concluded that “supporters of one candidate conducted themselves in a disruptive manner, violating the UDC’s stated audience policies … The audience was weighted in favor of one candidate. That portion of the audience included the disruptive actors.”
The UDC’s own skirts aren’t entirely clean with regard to ticketing, however.
According to Cooper’s review, the UVU site went live with debate tickets at 1:20 p.m. on Oct. 4.
But UDC executive director Erik Nielsen did not officially notify both campaigns that tickets were available until 6:48 p.m. that evening.
By that time, all tickets were already reserved, largely by Lee supporters.
Despite what UDC officials are calling that “unfortunate miscommunication,” Cooper’s review has now recommended a number of changes to the UDC ‘s policies for ticket distribution for future debates.
Those recommended changes include that a majority of audience seats will be reserved for host universities to distribute to students, faculty and employees; that the remaining tickets for Utah citizens will be managed by a single, designated university representative to preclude miscommunication; that controlled seating will be set aside for very important persons and campaign representatives; and that the UDC will proactively announce the day and time for public tickets to become available.
The UDC recommendations also pass the unenviable burden of creating a plan to enforce audience guidelines and control unruly outbursts during future debates to the hosting universities.
Although the Utah senate race drew national headlines as being hotly competitive, the outcome wasn’t even close. The incumbent senator ultimately garnered 55 percent of the statewide vote, compared to 45 percent for McMullin.
There is little evidence to indicate that audience outbursts at the Oct. 17 UDC debate had any impact on the final outcome of the senatorial race.
The Utah Debate Commission is a consortium of higher educational institutions, media organizations and business and civic leaders dedicated to creating a non-partisan and independent system of debates among qualified candidates for statewide and federal offices in Utah during each election cycle.