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(Photo courtesy David Leavitt for Congress)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The younger brother of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt filed to run for Congress on Thursday, creating a crowded GOP field vying for Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon's seat.
Utah is one of the nation's most conservative states, and Cannon has come under fire here for not being conservative enough, particularly on the issue of illegal immigration. Among the state's three congressmen, Cannon is the most vulnerable.
He now faces a challenge from David Leavitt, a former Juab County attorney who successfully prosecuted one of Utah's best-known polygamist leaders, Tom Green, and then lost his re-election bid three months later.
"A small town prosecutor has a little bit of a shelf life," Leavitt said. "Quite frankly, I'd prosecute Tom Green again if I had the same decisions to make and I knew that prosecution would cost me my job."
Leavitt's entry into the race gives Cannon one of the most credible competitors he's faced in years and is someone with instant name recognition. Leavitt's brother is also a former governor who was very popular here.
Among a list of incumbents that included President Bush, Cannon had the lowest favorability ratings among Utah voters the past two elections, according to exit polling from Brigham Young University's Center for Elections and Democracy, which is in Cannon's 3rd Congressional District.
"He's got some weaknesses that show up in terms of vulnerability, but he's always been challenged by somebody who tries to be more conservative than he is," said BYU political science professor Quin Monson. "That artificially reduces the pool of voters who you appeal to."
Cannon is also being challenged by Jason Chaffetz, the former campaign manager and chief of staff for current popular Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman. A third candidate, Joe Ferguson, who says he fears Mexico, Canada and the U.S. will merge into one country has also said he'll file for office as a Republican and has participated in candidate forums.
Both Leavitt and Chaffetz are making a crackdown on illegal immigration a central theme of their campaigns as they try to prevent Cannon from winning a seventh two-year term.
"I'm not here to say that Chris Cannon doesn't vote the way most Utahns vote, but I think he gets it wrong on immigration. And I think if he's been supportive of the president's budgets that are so expensive, then that's a problem," Leavitt said.
Cannon's first test comes during the state Republican convention on May 10, where candidates must win 60 percent of the vote to avoid a primary. Whoever wins the Republican nomination is almost assured victory in the general election.
Political analysts say that to defeat Cannon in a primary, a candidate will have to find issues other than immigration to focus on. Delegates to the Republican convention tend to be more conservative than average voters, and Cannon's previous opponents have failed to move toward the center during the primary or find another issue that resonates with voters.
Chaffetz has called for an end to the No Child Left Behind Act and the U.S. Department of Education. Leavitt says the federal government's role in education should be limited, but not eliminated. Like Chaffetz, he's also calling for greater budget controls.
Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, said Leavitt probably has a better campaign operation than Chaffetz so far and is Cannon's most formidable opponent.
"He seems to not be making the same mistake past challengers have made, which is to almost exclusively be a one-trick pony on immigration," Jowers said.
This election is shaping up to be just as difficult for Cannon as his previous two, where he had trouble wrapping up the Republican nomination after being forced into primaries against opponents who had little name recognition or political experience.
John Jacob, a self-made water rights millionaire, watched his campaign against Cannon implode in 2006 after several missteps, including saying that the devil was undermining his campaign. Cannon won the primary with 56 percent of the vote, then defeated Democrat Christian Burridge in the general election with 58 percent of the vote. Burridge garnered 32 percent of the vote.
This year, Cannon's opponents are more experienced and politically savvy, Monson said.
"Even in the past, with challengers that haven't been quite as good, he's managed to get into primaries. ... With two really pretty good ones coming up here, I think it's going to be a primary and a pretty hotly contested one," Monson said.
Monson said an indicator of Chaffetz and Leavitt as serious contenders is their ability to raise money. Chaffetz has raised more than $65,000 while Leavitt has raised more than $191,000, according to Dec. 31 Federal Election Commission filings.
Most of that money comes from individual donors, while the $326,000 Cannon raised has primarily come from out-of-state political action committees.
While Cannon raised more money, Leavitt had more cash on hand than his opponents with $58,838. Cannon had $52,104 while Chaffetz had $43,042.
Campaign finance reports for the first quarter of 2008 are due in April.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
