SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – “Happy Valley” is mighty angry over Bush-bashing Fahrenheit 9/11 director Michael Moore and his Slacker Uprising Tour, which is coming to one of the most conservative towns in the famously Republican state of Utah.

Moore hoped to stir up Republican partisans when he booked an October 20 appearance at Utah Valley State College in Orem. He succeeded – some people say they’d pay good money to keep him out.

“It’s really a major offence – a slap in the face to the citizens of this valley,” said Kay Anderson, a real estate broker who, waving a cashier’s cheque, offered student leaders $25,000 (euro 20,150) to rescind Moore’s invitation.

“We won’t be bribed,” responded Jim Bassi, student body president, who said the brouhaha guaranteed Moore a sold-out performance. “We spent $40,000 (euro 32,240) on Barbara Bush four years ago, and nobody raised an eyebrow about that.”

Orem sits in a county where only 5,739 of the 153,374 registered voters are Democrats – a minuscule 3.7 per cent, according to the county clerk’s office. So it’s no surprise that Moore has set off a buzz in Happy Valley, so named because of the mountain basin’s overwhelmingly Mormon population and its emphasis on cheerful, righteous living.

Moore’s film, playing in theatres and available on DVD, is a two-hour satire of President George W Bush’s response to the 2001 terror attacks and his decision to invade Iraq.

Republicans condemn it as a liberal screed, but all the attacks have been good publicity for Moore, who claims to be reaching 600,000 people on his 60-city speaking tour, mostly in election battleground states. His next college stops are in Tucson, Arizona, and Los Angeles.

“I am calling for a non-voter uprising, led by thousands of campus slackers who proudly sleep ’til noon and who believe papers are for rolling, not reading,” Moore says on his website. “They are rightfully cynical, but this year their motto will be: “Bush and Kerry Both Suck – That’s Why I’m Voting for John Kerry!”

He brushes off protests by campus Republicans and a decision by George Mason University to cancel his October 28 visit in Fairfax, Virginia, just days before the November 2 presidential election.

“I understand why some Bush supporters might be upset,” writes Moore. “I would be, too, if I only had a few weeks left in power.”

On the tour, Moore is showing outtakes of Fahrenheit 9/11 and reciting letters sent to him from US soldiers on duty in Iraq. He’s luring habitual non-voters on stage, offering them fresh underwear, potato chips and Ramen noodles in exchange for their promise to vote.

The get-out-the-vote stunts prompted Michigan Republicans to file a bribery complaint last week against Moore, who seemed delighted by that development. He took credit for a surge in Michigan voter registrations- 100,000 by his count.

Michigan prosecutors refused to say if they planned to charge Moore, who denies any wrongdoing.