Melvin and Merrill made a fortune selling explosives to the mining industry. The business thrived, doing $5 million to $10 million in annual sales. In 1998, while Cook was in Congress, he received a call from a competitor wanting to buy the company, promising that negotiations would start at $5 million. Cook turned him down. It was a decision he would regret.

While pulling in millions, Cook decided to indulge his passion for politics at the behest of friends who had listened to him talk politics over dinner for years. So began the campaigning. And the defeats.

1984: Lost close vote in a school board election.

1985: Lost bid for Salt Lake mayor.

1986: Lost another close one for county commissioner.

1988: Lost bid for governor as an independent.

1992: Lost a close race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination to Mike Leavitt.

"Do you run just to run?" a miffed Jon Huntsman Sr. asked Cook after trying to dissuade him from entering the '88 Republican race against him and Norm Bangerter (shortly before tearfully withdrawing from his brief bid for the governor's office).

In 1996, Cook finally broke through, beating Democrat Rocky Anderson in a run for Congress. In 1998, he was re-elected. It appeared to be the start of a long run, but really it was the start of trouble.

An independent road

Actually, Cook believes his problems might have begun years earlier. In 1986, he beat Lloyd Frandsen in the Republican primary, and some Frandsen loyalists threw support to Democrat David Watson for county commissioner. Gov. Bangerter never endorsed Cook, even though they were both Republicans.

Two years later, Cook opposed a tax hike proposal by Bangerter. He made an impassioned speech in front of the Republican Central Committee, and the committee voted overwhelmingly to oppose the tax hike. A couple of weeks later, the Central Committee held another unscheduled, hastily convened meeting, and the vote was reversed.

"They had been taken to the woodshed," says Cook. "I thought, this isn't right. It was loyalty to the person and the party rather than principles. After that, I became an independent."

He spent nearly $2 million of his own money on independent bids for governor in 1988 and 1992. He ran for Congress in 1994 and wound up losing a controversial decision, finishing second to Enid Greene, who eventually admitted to illegally funneling $1.8 million of her father's money into her campaign.

Greene was fined by the Federal Election Commission, but that didn't help Cook; the race was already lost.

"I remember we were leading her by 17 points two months before the election, and then 10 days later we were notified that she bought $600,000 worth of TV ads," recalls Cook. "We wondered where she got the money because she hadn't raised much before that."