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Issues/News>
Chaffetz Joins Race (Deseret Morning News)
October 2, 2007
10/2/07
Deseret Morning News
By Tad Walch
WEST JORDAN — Four years ago, during an I-15 drive to
Fillmore for a campaign stop, future Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman
Jr. learned his campaign manager had resigned for health
reasons.
Huntsman closed his cell phone, turned to former Brigham
Young University placekicker Jason Chaffetz and said,
"Congratulations, you're my new campaign manager."
Chaffetz asked Huntsman for a timeout. He had no
experience. But he soon agreed to lead the ultimately
successful campaign and later spent two years as Huntsman's
first chief of staff.
Chaffetz took far more time this year to consider doing
something else he's never done — run for office himself.
Nine months after forming an exploratory committee,
Chaffetz launched Monday a frontal assault on 3rd District
Congressman Chris Cannon in a bid to unseat the six-term
fellow Republican.
Chaffetz clearly will attack from the right. He spent
Monday criticizing Cannon for being in Congress while the
federal budget nearly doubled from $1.5 trillion to $2.9
trillion, for lacking toughness on immigration and for
voting for the No Child Left Behind law.
"What I saw back in 2006," when the Democrats took back
control of Congress, "was the American people saying, 'You
failed,'" Chaffetz said. "Republicans controlled the
presidency, the House and the Senate, and we failed to
address education, fiscal discipline, and we were mired in
scandal. And guess what? It wasn't everybody else's
congressman but ours. That's not an excuse. If you can't
get done in 10 years, when your party's in control, what
you wanted to do, then it's time to go."
Chaffetz said he will run a clean campaign but won't mince
words about Cannon's record, which he studied as Huntsman's
chief of staff.
"As I looked at the federal delegation," Chaffetz said, "I
recognized how poorly the Cannon office was operating, how
poorly they were representing their constituents. I've seen
it up close and personal. ... I was the one who got to go
with Gov. Huntsman and sit down with (U.S. Secretary of
Education Margaret) Spellings and tell her why No Child
Left Behind was wrong for Utah, because Chris Cannon
wasn't. He was supporting it."
Cannon will have to fend off Chaffetz and at least one
other challenger, former Juab County prosecutor David
Leavitt. The three will face off May 10 at the state
Republican Party Convention at Utah Valley State College,
though others could still join the race.
Leavitt, who filed to run last spring, announced Monday
that his campaign has raised more than $100,000 since
starting its fund-raising efforts in August. Chaffetz said
he has raised "tens of thousands of dollars."
Chaffetz hopes to win the Republican nomination at the
convention by earning 60 percent of the votes from among
the 1,200 delegates.
Cannon's chief of staff, Joe Hunter, said the congressman
expected another challenge from inside the party, which has
become a regular occurrence despite the high ratings Cannon
has earned from several conservative groups.
"I think it's way too early to characterize it as the
stiffest (challenge) or the easiest, or whatever," Hunter
said. "The 3rd District generally produces energetic,
intraparty challenges, and there's no reason to think this
will be any different. We've had challenges from
millionaires and former office-holders, and Congressman
Cannon is still in office."
Republican convention delegates are a favorite target of
Cannon's challengers from the right because delegates tend
to be more conservative than those who vote in the
Republican primary.
John Jacob actually edged Cannon in the delegate vote at
the 2006 convention, 52 percent to 48 percent but was
pushed into a primary with the incumbent because Jacob
didn't reach 60 percent. In the primary, Cannon won easily
among the more moderate Republican electorate, 56 percent
to 44 percent.
Chaffetz said Monday that since his announcement in January
that he was exploring the possibility of a run, he has
called 1,000 of the 1,200 delegates.
"I'm working with the delegates one at a time," he said.
"It's all about relationships and dealing with voters one
at a time."
While Chaffetz said Cannon is "fundamentally and
principally wrong on immigration, top to bottom," and
promised a policy speech with a seven-point plan on the
issue before the convention, he said past campaigns against
Cannon have struggled to avoid single-topic challenges and
promised to better negotiate that mire.
Hunter said Cannon talks with delegates almost daily,
calling attacks on Cannon from the right of the party on
immigration "an old story."
Chaffetz also attacked Cannon for being the only member of
the Utah delegation to support a nuclear waste repository
at Yucca Mountain and a June 15 vote for a $34 billion
Homeland Security appropriation that was opposed by 148
House Republicans who sided with President Bush. Bush had
asked for $2 billion less.
Chaffetz also said he is a better communicator than Cannon.
(Tip of the day: Jason's last name is pronounced "Chay-fits")
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