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Issues/News>
Des News: Chaffetz Wins Big
June 25, 2008
Chaffetz wins big — He turns Cannon into a lame duck
By Tad Walch
Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:30 a.m. MDT
A groundbreaking grassroots organization built by
challenger Jason Chaffetz combined Tuesday with a growing
storm of Republican discontent to sweep six-term
Congressman Chris Cannon out of office.
Chaffetz handily defeated Cannon, earning 60 percent of the
vote to land the Republican nomination for Utah's 3rd
District seat in Congress, a seat held by Cannon since
1996.
"I got a nice call from Congressman Cannon wishing us all
the best. That was a sweet call to take," Chaffetz said
after 200 supporters greeted him at 11 p.m. with chants of
"Jason, Jason, Jason."
Unhappy Republican voters stayed home Tuesday, and those
who did vote expressed their frustration with $4 gas and
other problems. Cannon termed it a revolution, a sign that
the anger that swept Democrats to power in Congress had
lapped up on Utah's borders.
Chaffetz agreed voters are frustrated.
"We have to get serious about $4 gasoline, fiscal
discipline and the illegal immigration problem in America,"
he said. "This is just the beginning. I need your help. We
need to take this all the way through November."
He'll clearly follow the same blueprint that won the
primary.
"We did two things exceptionally," Chaffetz said earlier in
the day. "First, we focused on policy and issues, because
issues matter with voters. Second, we created a true,
grassroots organization. It was very real."
Chaffetz pointed to his hundreds of volunteers and the
demand for things like yard signs as proof of that support.
Chaffetz defeated Cannon at the Republican convention
runoff, 59 percent to 41. But Cannon had lost at convention
two years ago to John Jacob and then easily won the
Republican primary.
Chaffetz maintained a perfect pitch to his campaign
throughout, something Jacob couldn't manage, and volunteer
campaign manager Jennifer Scott masterminded the grassroots
effort.
Despite polls that reflected a statistical tie and a face
sunburned by honk-and-wave events during the morning, lunch
and evening drive times, Cannon appeared comfortable in his
spartan campaign office late Tuesday afternoon. A veteran
of several close primary races, he wasn't concerned he
might lose.
"It's always been close," he said. "There is a base vote
that is opposed to me. But being released is not all a bad
thing. I have lots of options and alternatives. If I don't
win I'll do exactly the same thing I did before and
essentially what I'm doing now. I'll go out and make money,
which I can't really do now, and continue to develop tools
to help Republicans go out and win."
The two camps watched election results six miles apart,
with Cannon backers gathered in a hot, stuffy room on the
third floor of the Historic County Courthouse in Provo and
Chaffetz supporters just down University Avenue and I-15 at
the Camelot Village Clubhouse behind the Springville
Wal-Mart.
The clubhouse was electric from the moment Chaffetz thanked
his campaign staff at 8 p.m. By 9:30, early returns from 21
percent of the precincts had Chaffetz leading by 16
percentage points, 58 to 42 and the contrast between the
two groups grew starker, one buoyed by excitement and the
other increasingly somber.
The organization built by Chaffetz and Scott overcame a
large gap in campaign cash that grew in the final days
before the vote. Cannon's fundraising machine raked in
$86,000 in large donations over the last dozen days,
according the Federal Elections Commission Web site. Over
the same time period, Chaffetz gathered just $6,300.
The new cash put Cannon at nearly $740,000 for the two-year
election cycle, with Chaffetz at just more than $170,000.
Chaffetz warmly embraced the financial gap, attacking
Cannon for running his campaign in debt and managing his
own without a single paid staffer and without providing
food for events.
"When we win tonight," Scott told fellow Chaffetz backers
before results began to roll in, "everybody will think some
genius was behind this campaign, but it wasn't me and it
wasn't you, it was all of us."
Chaffetz will face Democrat Bennion Spencer in November. He
will kick off the race Saturday with a party at his Alpine
home at 7 p.m.
Regardless of who wins the November election for Utah's 3rd
Congressional District, Utah will have a freshman lawmaker
replacing Cannon and all the seniority he's accrued over
six terms.
With Democrats in control, Cannon is the top Republican on
the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and
Administrative Law — a panel where he previously served as
chairman when the Republicans held the majority.
That panel handles bankruptcy law, interstate compacts and
state taxes that affect interstate commerce, among other
issues. Cannon is also on the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, which handles numerous
congressional investigations.
Cannon is also a member of the House Natural Resources
Committee, where he serves on the National Parks, Forests,
and Public Lands Subcommittee, a key spot for a Utah
lawmaker because there is so much public land in the state.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, also sits on the panel.
Although being in the majority does have its privileges,
having committee and legislative experience — regardless of
who controls the House — also has its perks and will be
something a freshman lawmaker will have to learn.
Contributing: Suzanne Struglinski
(Tip of the day: Jason's last name is pronounced "Chay-fits")
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