Thursday, September 27, 2012

Racist package containing images of KKK and aborted fetuses sent to surging black Mormon Republican candidate Mia Love

Republican congressional candidate Mayor Mia Love, a star of the party's recent convention, has been sent a 'disturbing' package that included a picture of her and her husband with a hooded Ku Klux Klan figure.

The package arrived at her mayoral office in Saratoga Springs, Utah as an internal poll released by her campaign purportedly showed her surging into a 15-point lead over her Democratic opponent - an apparent dramatic turnaround after a public poll in June found her trailing by the same margin.

Mark Christensen, city manager of Saratoga Springs, described the contents of the thick envelope to the Deseret News as 'pretty creepy stuff' and 'disturbing' and 'pretty creepy stuff'.

Love, 36, was born in New York to Haitian immigrants. She converted to Mormonism after meeting her husband Jason, who is white, when he was a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionary in Connecticut.

She converted to the faith just before their marriage.

If elected, Love would become the first ever black woman to serve as a Republican member of the United States Congress. The population of Utah is an overwhelmingly white.

During the Republican convention in Tampa, Love's speech wowed delegates and marked her out as a future star of the party.

In the speech, she said: 'My parents immigrated to the U.S. with $10 in their pocket, believing that the America they had heard about really did exist.

'When times got tough they didn't look to Washington, they looked within... So the America I came to know was centred in personal responsibility and filled with the American Dream.'

Christensen described the package as containing a picture of Love and her husband and a hooded Ku Klux Klan character.

Disturbing: Republican congressional candidate Mayor Mia Love has been sent a 'disturbing' package that included a picture of her and her husband with a hooded Ku Klux Klan figure (stock photo)

Family: Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah Mia Love pictured centre with her family, has been sent racist mail

There also were pictures of aborted fetuses. He said: 'I couldn't tell if it was threatening or anything. It kind of shocked me, what I saw.'

The package, which also included fliers and pages printed from the Internet, has been handed over to the Saratoga Springs police. Christensen said the city had received others material aimed at Love but nothing like the recent package, which arrived on Tuesday.

Gary Hicken, the city's police chief, told the Deseret News that he had assigned an officer to investigate. 'I can say it's racial in nature but I can't tell you it's criminal in nature.'

Reacting to the package, Love said: 'I want you to know, I want everyone to know I am comfortable in my skin. I'm comfortable and proud of my heritage. I'm proud of who I am.

'I know where I'm going and I know what we need to do to get this country back in order again. There isn’t anything that anyone can send me that will distract me from that so they can bring it.'


Love said she believed she had become a target because she posed a political threat to the Obama administration and were designed to divert and intimidate her. 'If there is a physical threat, I'm sure they will let me know about it. But I want [the police] to be aware and handle that.'

She described herself as a 'tough cookie' and would protect her family. The police might increase patrols around her family home, Hicken said. 'I knew that people would come after me,' Love said.

'I knew that people would try to change and distort information so I'm going to focus on things that are really important.'

Love is engaged in a heated battled with Representative Jim Matheson, the incumbent Democrat. The Matheson campaign that the internal poll was 'totally biased' to distract people from her stumbles.

VIDEO: Who is Mia Love?

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