From Deseret News archives:

Mathesons on the march

Huntsman is losing gubernatorial ground

Published: Saturday, Sept. 11, 2004 10:32 p.m. MDT
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You will see no ads showing the two Mathesons together, Zuhl added.

While Utah law is liberal on control of state races — candidates can raise as much money as they can from anyone, spend it anyway they wish — federal law tightly controls what a candidate for the U.S. Congress can and can't do. "There would be legal concerns for Jim" if the campaigns shared supporter lists and other items, Zuhl said.

But Scott Matheson said in other ways his campaign, on its own, will try to find any and all supporters. Will some be Jim Matheson/Huntsman people turned into Matheson/Matheson supporters? Yes, said Scott Matheson.

"This (poll result) is a real opportunity for me," said Scott Matheson. "There is great potential out there, clearly. We have to get our message to them."

On the other side of the coin, Swallow will be working to see who the Jim Matheson/Huntsman supporters are and switching them to Swallow/Huntsman voters, with both GOP campaigns trying to tap into Utah's strong Bush support as well.

While the 2nd District and governor's races show results that may surprise some, the other races are so far following the traditional Utah political line: Republican incumbents holding firm leads.

Utah gave Bush his largest majority in 2000. Jones found that if the election were today, Bush would get 65 percent support to Kerry's 25 percent.

U.S. GOP Sen. Bob Bennett, seeking his third, six-year term, leads Democratic challenger Paul Van Dam, 60-23 percent.

In the 1st Congressional District, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, leads Democrat Steve Thompson, 53-23 percent, Jones found.

Third District incumbent Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, leads Democrat Beau Babka, 51-27 percent.

And GOP Attorney General Mark Shurtleff leads Democratic challenger Greg Skordas, 57-20 percent.

Jones polled Monday through Thursday of last week. On Wednesday, Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman, a Republican charged with two felony counts for misuse of public monies, announced that she had hired Skordas as her defense attorney.

Democratic Party leaders said that Workman's hiring of Skordas should help him in the attorney general's race, for it points out that Skordas is considered a great attorney by Republicans. But that announcement only would have had two days effect on Jones' polling, if indeed the Skordas hiring had any effect at all in Skordas' popular appeal.


E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com



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