wiki excerpt
Early life, education and career
He attended Brigham Young University (BYU) on an athletic scholarship. He was the starting placekicker on the BYU football team in 1988 and 1989, and still holds the BYU individual records for most extra points attempted in a game (10), most extra points made in a game (10), and most consecutive extra points made in a game (10).[1]
While at BYU, Chaffetz became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[2] He graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.
Chaffetz grew up a Democrat. While a student at BYU, he was a Utah co-chairman for Michael Dukakis’s 1988 campaign for U.S. President. His father had previously been married to Dukakis’ wife, Kitty, and his half-brother is former actor John Dukakis.[3]
According to J. J. Goldberg of The Jewish Daily Forward Chaffetz was raised as a Jew: “He was born and raised Jewish but converted to Mormonism as an undergrad on a football scholarship at Brigham Young University, where he was a place-kicker (reportedly having converted from high school soccer to college football). He is incorrectly described in many places on the Web as the son of Kitty Dukakis with her first husband, author John Chaffetz, before she married the Massachusetts ex-governor, but that’s not true. Jason is the child of John Chaffetz’s second marriage, after John and Kitty were divorced.”[4]
He became a Republican after meeting Ronald Reagan in 1990, when Reagan came to Chaffetz’s employer, Nu Skin, a multi-level marketing company based in Provo, Utah, as a motivational speaker. However, his political views had been drifting more to the right even while working for Dukakis.[5]
After college, Chaffetz joined the local business community. His work included being a spokesman for Nu Skin International
Thanks for the excerpt. That stuff doesn’t really bother me. He was a young college student, raised in a house full of Democrats. I think his politics were understandable.
The good news is that his head was turned by Ronald Reagan. That means he thinks for himself.
I like what I’ve seen of him so far. I agree with what other posters have said: “Trust, but verify.”
So he was a democrat while in college who became a republican after he got some exposure to the real world (and met Ronald Reagan). I think I could overlook youthful and uninformed democrat activity on his part given the fact that once he started seeing the real world he moved to the right.