Cannon said his solid victory in Utah's Republican primary is good news for President Bush

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/28/AR2006062800267.html ^

[Sharks]

SALT LAKE CITY -- U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon said his solid victory in Utah's Republican primary is good news for President Bush and those seeking a consensus on immigration policy this year.

"I hope what it means is Republicans look at this and realize we don't have to be divided on the issue of illegal immigration," Cannon said. The five-term incumbent defeated political newcomer John Jacob on Tuesday 56 percent to 44 percent _ or 32,306 votes to 25,589 votes _ with all precincts reporting but an unknown number of absentee ballots to be counted.

"This is a big margin of victory. It says a lot about Republicans getting together and solving this problem," he said.

The victory came after a race that focused mainly on whether millions of illegal immigrants should be forced to return to their home country before getting an

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

This just proves how hard it is to get rid of an incumbent who has twice the money to spend!

[Bikers4Bush]

Had Jacobs not claimed satan was giving his campaign trouble it'd be a different story this morning.

Cannon is delluded if he thinks he won for any other reason.

[moog]

Jacob had plenty of his own it seems from reading some of the articles.

[cripplecreek]

Good news for Bush? Does this mean he's running again?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Dial 1 for English, dial 2 for Cannon ( who had nearly twice the money).

[moog]

For a while, Cannon was having difficulty raising funds and Jacob had plenty. In the last little bit, Cannon raised a lot.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

From the people in Utah?

[moog]

Jacob was pretty well off it seems and yes, I think he did get a lot of donations, from reading different articles about it.

[gaussia]

-------------------- Campaign funding --------------------

Cannon:
All contributions: $815,687
Individual contributors: $219,109
Political action committees: $458,614
Loans to himself: $137,962

Jacob:
All contributions: $383,860
Individual contributors: $27,860
Political action committees: $3,000
Loans to himself: $353,000

More than half of Cannon's $815,000-plus war chest comes from corporate and special interest political action committees, many of them based out of state.

Virginia-based Team America PAC has spent $40,500 supporting John Jacob

source

--------------------- Endorsements ---------------------

Cannon: The President of the United States

Jacob: ?

------------------ Political experience ------------------

Cannon: 5 terms in House, currently in office

Jacob: none

------------------------ Final tally ------------------------

Cannon: 55.8%

Jacob: 44.2%

---------------------------------------------------------------

[bilhosty]

Bad news:Cannon wins

Good news: Cannon in the polls never had close to a majority. convential wisdom says you are doomed when yo are the incumbent. But, with a solid win that is good news for Talent, DeWine, Chaffee and Burns who also have less then a majority in polls.

[moog]

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,640187703,00.html

[gaussia]

Check

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/183127/3/

[JCEccles]

Just as I said it would, the drive to toss Cannon out on his shamnesty-loving rear end starts anew today. The party faithful I've spoken with are exhilirated and encouraged by the bashing he took this time round, the enormous amount of money from pro-shamnesty businesses he had to use, and the desperate last second intervention by the White House he needed--all to defeat a political neophyte in the most conservative congressional district in the country.

Of course, he'll win the general election. Any Republican candidate in the Third District is a shoo-in. So we're not worried about losing a Republican seat in Congress this November.

Our efforts are now focused on the next cycle. We intend to ensure he is defeated cleanly at the Utah State Republican convention next time round. There will be no primary. Cannon will simply be history.

Cannon has one chance to avoid this fate, and that is to repudiate his pro-shamnesty stance and get back to representing America, not Mexico, in Congress. He will be watched like a hawk, every speech recorded and examined, every meeting with and award from pro-shamnesty groups scrutinized. It will all come back to haunt him like a bad nightmare in two years.

[moog]

As some other poster said to me:

The incumbent thing was the big stick. Name recognition, fundraising, Presidential endorsements are only part of the incumbents advantage. Having enough political experience to not say something stupid: priceless...

[Malesherbes]

Well said.

[Wallace T.]

Had Jacobs not claimed satan was giving his campaign trouble it'd be a different story this morning.

Did Jacobs really say that, or was that a story planted by his opponent's operatives in the media? He might have had a "Clayton Williams" moment, but it is also possible that the "Satan" statement was a dirty trick.

[colorcountry]

Count me in, in that fight to defeat Cannon.

It is more telling that only 8% of voters in District 3 cared enough about this House race to even vote. That is NOT a win for republicans, since it shows the complete apathy surrounding politics.

Even the President and First Lady calling with endorsements was not enough to generate any sort of interest in the Utah political process. I think it's frightening.

When an incumbent wins by 6717 votes in a must contested, heated, financed, endorsed campaign, and it's looked upon as some kind of referendum, there is something wrong with the entire system.

It should make us all very afraid. Big money and influence have won over grass roots. We have PAC vs. GOP and nobody wins. I am, like the other 92% of voters in District 3, ready to give up, but I won't. This country and the political process deserve a fight, even when I am sometimes on the losing end of the fight.

I'm going to lick my wounds now, thanks for the pep-talk brother.

[Bikers4Bush]

Very true, although if it was planted he should have refuted it immediately.

[JCEccles]

Cannon was scared right out of his shamnesty-loving pantaloons as voters went to the polls last night. His claim that it was a "comfortable margin of victory" is false bravado. There was nothing comfortable about it. He was humiliated first at the state convention and then again in the primary.

Tom Tancredo, it should be noted, is doing just fine as are all congressional opponents of the administration's ill-conceived open borders immigration policies.

The message got sent, alright. But it is not the message Cannon is spinning this morning.

Next up: a clean defeat for Cannon at the Utah State Republican Convention in 2008.