October 31, 2025

A pretzel of financial shenanigans

48 minutes

This week in Utah politics: dark money, taxpayer funded PR campaign and a massive homeless campus.

Mega “service campus” for the homeless near SLC airport: 16 acres, up to 1,300 beds, involuntary commitments, forced treatment. Civil liberties alarms vs. “we have to do something.” Cox does damage control via a friendly outlet, swatting Nazi comparisons.

House PR machine on your dime: Speaker Schultz’s glossy videos produced by a paid outside firm (Northbound Strategy ~$6k/month, >$215k since ’23). Posted first to his personal accounts, then amplified by official channels. ROI? Shrug. Also: his video flirting with threats against the judge.

Dark money creeps local: National Liberty Champions PAC drops into an Alpine school board race. The Mike Lee orbit—Thomas Datwyler (treasurer), Dan Hauser (L4 Consulting, lives in-district)—connects the dots. Same network fueled attacks in UT-2 primary via Constitutional Conservatives PAC.

Ogden City Council shenanigans: Candidate takes ~$15k from “Taxpayers PAC,” blowing past $1,500 limits. Money trace: AZ Christian nationalist pastor/funder → PAC → candidate → consultant. The consultant? He set up the PAC routing the cash back to himself. Illegal overage likely returned.

Conspiracy-to-policy pipeline: Gold-as-currency schemes pushed by fringe “experts,” and yes—another chemtrails bill incoming.

Heads up: Election Day is Tuesday. If your ballot’s still on the counter, fix that.

Tip Jar: This political hellscape doesn't document itself. Throw some cash in the tip jar and help me keep calling out the BS without having to sell my soul to corporate overlords.

Subscribe: Get our free newsletter at UtahPoliticalWatch.news and find out what fresh hell the legislature cooked up while you were sleeping. Or become a paid subscriber – because somebody needs to fund this one-man war against political gaslighting.

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Sponsor the show: Got deep pockets and a masochistic love of Utah politics? Sponsor this podcast and support our coverage of this slow motion train wreck. Hit us up [email protected].

Stalk us on social media: Bluesky TikTok Instagram Facebook Threads

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By Utah Political Watch

2424 ratings

October 31, 2025

A pretzel of financial shenanigans

48 minutes

This week in Utah politics: dark money, taxpayer funded PR campaign and a massive homeless campus.

Mega “service campus” for the homeless near SLC airport: 16 acres, up to 1,300 beds, involuntary commitments, forced treatment. Civil liberties alarms vs. “we have to do something.” Cox does damage control via a friendly outlet, swatting Nazi comparisons.

Conspiracy-to-policy pipeline: Gold-as-currency schemes pushed by fringe “experts,” and yes—another chemtrails bill incoming.

Heads up: Election Day is Tuesday. If your ballot’s still on the counter, fix that.

Tip Jar: This political hellscape doesn't document itself. Throw some cash in the tip jar and help me keep calling out the BS without having to sell my soul to corporate overlords.

Sponsor the show: Got deep pockets and a masochistic love of Utah politics? Sponsor this podcast and support our coverage of this slow motion train wreck. Hit us up at [email protected].

Stalk us on social media:

Bluesky

TikTok

Instagram

Facebook

Threads

X/Twitter

📰 Subscribe at UtahPolitics.news

Sponsor the show: Got deep pockets and a masochistic love of Utah politics? Sponsor this podcast and support our coverage of this slow motion train wreck. Hit us up [email protected].

Stalk us on social media: Bluesky TikTok Instagram Facebook Threads

X/Twitter

...more