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Issues/News>
SL Trib: Cannon spiked by newbie Chaffetz
June 25, 2008
Cannon spiked by newbie Chaffetz in 3rd District primary
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 06/25/2008 06:36:03 AM MDT
Election night
Jun 25:
Chaffetz's promise to change Washington, starting with Rep.
Chris Cannon, resonated with Republican voters, who ousted
the six-term incumbent in a GOP primary Tuesday.
"We rocked the vote here in Utah and we rocked the
Republican Party," Chaffetz told about 175 supporters
gathered to celebrate the victory. "I think we've been
given a mandate to return the Republican Party to its core
conservative principles."
With 99 percent of the votes counted, Chaffetz led
Cannon by about 20 points. Chaffetz now advances to face
Democrat Bennion Spencer in November. The seat strongly
favors Republicans.
With Chaffetz holding an insurmountable lead late
Tuesday, Cannon refused to concede until nearly 11 p.m. He
said that, while he is leaving Congress, he is not leaving
politics, and committed to work to getting Republicans
around the country elected, including Chaffetz.
"We had a small race and the people of Utah have
spoken," said Cannon, who believed low turnout was a factor
in the election, but the war in Iraq and President Bush's
sagging popularity were not.
"Bush has the highest rating in Utah, and that says the
people support him and the war," Cannon said. "Their
frustration is directed elsewhere."
The battle between Chaffetz and Cannon saw many of the
larger political trends - discontent with Congress, high
gas prices and a shaky economy play out on a small scale.
"It's just such a tough environment for incumbents,"
said Kelly Patterson, director of the Center for the Study
of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University.
"President Bush had low approval ratings, Congress had low
approval ratings. People are dissatisfied with the way
Congress and Washington work and Representative Cannon was
seen as a part of that."
Chaffetz, 41, who is president of the consulting firm
Maxtera Inc., and former chief of staff to Gov. Jon
Huntsman Jr., launched his campaign nearly two years ago,
meeting with Republican delegates to lay the groundwork for
his challenge.
Chaffetz hammered away at Cannon, running a relentless
campaign targeting Congress' failure to control government
spending, fix immigration and energy policies, and vowing
to eliminate the federal government's role in public
education.
"The Republican Party is broken and I want to fix it,"
said Chaffetz, as his supporters celebrated, drinking apple
beer at a gathering in Springville.
Cannon has cited his conservative credentials, his work
to develop oil shale in order to bring down gas prices, and
said he has the experience and seniority to represent the
district in Washington.
In the primary's last days, he also criticized Chaffetz
for not living in the 3rd District. While that is legal, it
is unusual. In fact, Chaffetz is the only one to pull it
off in recent memory.
It was the third straight election in which Cannon was
forced into a primary. But in the previous two contests,
his opponents proved less skilled politicians than Chaffetz
and based their campaigns almost exclusively on opposition
to illegal immigration.
Chaffetz fell 10 votes shy of eliminating Cannon at the
Utah Republican Convention, forcing him to a primary.
Cannon out-raised Chaffetz by nearly 7-to-1, had the
endorsements of President Bush and Sens. Orrin Hatch and
Bob Bennett, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on
polling.
Chaffetz and his fleet of volunteer staff put their
energy into organizing a grass-roots push.
"This was an anti-government vote," said John Updike, a
Cannon supporter from Provo, who also blamed low turnout
and complacency for Cannon's poor showing.
A poll conducted last week by Brigham Young University
found that about 80 percent of voters in the 3rd
Congressional District thought the country was on the wrong
track, indicating a clear appetite for change.
"[Chaffetz] clearly was able to ride a wave, but there
was a wave there to ride," said Patterson.
The Cannon campaign spent weeks trying to identify the
congressman's supporters and pulled out the stops to make
sure they got to their polling places on Tuesday. Chaffetz
had identified captains in each precinct in the district
responsible for getting his voters to the polls.
Holly Richardson, who has 20 adopted children, said she
felt like Chaffetz "walked the walk with his fiscal
discipline," and liked his stance on fixing illegal
immigration and repealing the No Child Left Behind Act.
"This is the first campaign I've helped on. None before
Jason's have grabbed me," she said.
gehrke@sltrib.com
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* SHEENA MCFARLAND and DONALD W. MEYERS contributed to
this report.
(Tip of the day: Jason's last name is pronounced "Chay-fits")
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