Salt Lake Strategery

By Kleinheider Posted on June 25, 2008 at 5:57 pm

Tom Leatherwood, Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s upstart GOP challenger in the 7th Congressional District, sees a lot to like yesterday in the primary results out of Utah:

I encourage you to take a look at the results in yesterday’s Republican Primary in Utah’s 3^rd Congressional District. In that race, the incumbent Republican Congressman was defeated 60% to 40%, despite outspending his challenger by almost $500,000.

This shows that money alone can’t save an incumbent congressman when a challenger has a strong issue working in their favor.

Incumbent Chris Cannon, first elected in 1996, was endorsed by President Bush and both of Utah’s Republican U.S. Senators. Cannon spent more than $760,000 compared to the victorious Jason Chaffetz, who spent just $175,000.

Congressional Quarterly’s on-line report cited “the failure of Cannon to generate the kind of turnout typically enjoyed by House incumbents.” Cannon was criticized for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, an unpopular position in that district.

Here in Tennessee’s 7^th District, Blackburn faces a similar challenge. The Leatherwood campaign finds that voters disapprove of incumbent Blackburn’s pattern of violating Federal Election law and her funneling more than $350,000 in campaign funds to family members.

Tom told me that this election sends to Washington the same message he wants to send, “For Republicans to regain our majority, we have to reform the way we do business in Washington. That means holding our own accountable and replacing them when they lose their way.”

Geography also played a role in the Chaffetz victory. He carried Salt Lake County, his home county and the largest in the district, with 63% of the vote. In the 7^th District, Leatherwood’s home of Shelby County accounts for more than 50% of the Republican Primary vote in non-gubernatorial years.

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Tags: Chris Cannon, Congress, Jason Chaffetz, Marsha Blackburn, Tom Leatherwood, Utah