Love-Owens rematch already garnering national attention

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SALT LAKE CITY — Next year's rematch between Republican Rep. Mia Love and Democrat Doug Owens is already shaping up to be another close race to represent Utah's 4th District, this time with an even higher national profile.

News this week that Love is paying back taxpayers for a second trip between Washington, D.C., and Salt Lake City comes amid growing interest from the national Democratic Party in Owens' campaign.

"I think he has a chance. I do," Utah pollster Dan Jones said Tuesday. "Those airplane trips just show there is a problem (for Love). It's not a large one, but it's something that makes for news."

Owens, who lost to Love in 2014, saw The Cook Political Report change its closely watched nonpartisan ratings for the upcoming race from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican" after Love's first travel reimbursement issue surfaced.

That was over weekend flights Love took last spring to attend the annual White House Correspondents dinner in Washington. After being questioned about the trip, Love said she would return more than $1,000 she had billed to taxpayers.

On Monday, The Hill reported Love was reimbursing taxpayers nearly $600 to cover the cost of a fight from Washington to Salt Lake City in February she never took after booking trips home on consecutive days.

The reimbursements, which have received plenty of coverage from the political press, underscore what David Wasserman, Cook's House editor, described as Love's seeming detachment from her district.

Love-Owens rematch already garnering national attention

Having to repay the cost of flights to attend the correspondents dinner "plays into voters' existing concern that she would rather embrace national stardom and seek the political spotlight than tend to constituent concerns," Wasserman said.

Love, the first black Republican woman in Congress, has attracted national attention since her unsuccessful 2012 run against now retired Rep. Jim Matheson, a Democrat.

During the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, where Mitt Romney was nominated for president, Love had a prime speaking spot. Key party members, including now former House Speaker John Boehner, held fundraisers for her in Utah.

"Mia Love just hasn't bonded with this district over the last two campaigns," Wasserman said, limiting her advantage as an incumbent in the 2016 race. "She has got to show she is focused."

Love's campaign manager, Dave Hansen, had little to say about the impact of her travel reimbursements on her re-election bid.

"I just don't think it's a real issue. I'm not even going to get into talking about it," Hansen said. He said The Cook Political Report is "absolutely wrong" in rating the 4th District as more competitive.

"First of all, it really doesn't matter what the ratings are right now. It's a year from the election. We feel very good where we are," Hansen said. "She has been working very hard. She has been doing her job as a member of Congress."

Owens, however, recently spent time in Washington with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The powerful committee has been sending out news releases focused on Love's "vulnerability."

In September, the committee's chairman, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico, brought up Owens first during a discussion on C-SPAN about how many seats Democrats hope to pick up in 2016.

Citing Owens' 5-point loss last year, Lujan said, "he's working very hard already" on the next election.

Owens, the son of late Utah congressman Wayne Owens, also didn't want to talk about the travel reimbursements Love has made.

"Utahns deserve better," he said. "That's really all I want to say about those flights."

While in Washington, Owens said he met with "a whole host of people," including some at The Cook Political Report, to learn how to "become a better candidate" this time. He called the new Cook Report rating an upgrade of his candidacy.

"I am excited about the widespread interest in the race," Owens said, although the national Democratic committee has not made any financial commitments. "That is not a focus of the campaign to win their support."

Wasserman said it will "take an extraordinary set of circumstances for a Democrat to win Utah's 4th District, which includes the west sides of Salt Lake and Utah counties.

"No Democrat in the House represents a district anywhere near this Republican at the moment," he said. "For (Owens) to beat Mia Love, he has to make the election a referendum about Mia Love."

Chris Karpowitz, co-director of the BYU Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, said most voters aren't paying attention yet to the 4th District race, even though it may be the most competitive in the state.

But with national attention already on the election, Karpowitz said there should be plenty of money available to both candidates for what he termed a vigorous campaign between a now-incumbent and a more seasoned challenger.

Love, he said, has had "no major missteps in office but also no major successes," as far as voters are concerned, although there is potential for the reimbursement issue to become a problem for her if it's seen as a pattern.

"It may be she's simply been working hard to learn how to have more influence and make a difference. Few freshman make a big mark," Karpowitz said. "She hasn't played the public role that I think some people thought she would."

Hansen, who served as Love's campaign manager in 2014, said she is focused on her district, not national attention.

"The fact that she hasn't been on the national news as much as some thought she might, I think that's a tribute to her. She's not a national member of Congress. She's a member from the 4th District," he said.

That's a decision Love made in the last election, Hansen said.

"When she ran in 2012, she was more of a high-profile candidate and she didn't make it to Congress," he said. Since then, she's "turned down numerous chances to be on the national media because she wanted to concentrate on the district."

Still, Hansen said, Love is a Democratic target as "a symbol of an expanded Republican Party."

Democrats are "trying to make it a race. She's not your standard Republican legislator back there. They would like to not have her there, obviously," he said. "She's not your regular, middle-aged white guy, to be honest and frank about it."