Cannon forced into a primary

Unopposed within the GOP, U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop was chosen to run in his 1st Congressional District.

Overall, it was not a happy convention as former U.S. Rep. Enid Greene, now state party vice chairwoman, was loudly booed and shouted at as she tried to conduct a morning vote on a controversial party constitutional amendment.

Pounding the gavel loudly on the podium in the South Towne Expo Center hall, Greene yelled, "I will have people be silent or removed" by the sergeant of arms.

How emotional was the debate over party rules? More "delegates" voted in a standing count on the amendment than there were delegates credentialed in the hall. Flummoxed, party leaders then decided to have a rare, special handwritten ballot over the amendment, recommended by party leaders, that would give county parties the sole power over deciding who state delegates are, as is the current practice.

In the end, the amendment failed, although party leaders expect that the debate has not.

"It just means that the delegates did not want to codify what we are already doing," Republican executive director Jeff Hartley said. "What it really means is that this debate will probably continue for the rest of my life."

But the day was mostly about choosing party candidates, or at least whittling down the candidate field in contested races to two primary contenders.

Cannon will have name recognition going into the six-week primary race in the 3rd District, which includes most of western Salt Lake County, most of Utah County and a few counties to the south.

But Jacob, a millionaire through his water and land development — much of it in northern Utah County — could well have the money edge. He is also willing to use it, saying after the convention that "he will spend enough to get my message out to the voters."

Cannon's latest financial report shows he has only around $30,000, while Jacob, who has already spent $250,000 of his own money on his race and says he may spend $1 million, can just write his own checks in a broad-based, TV-oriented primary campaign.

Cannon was likely harmed by continued attacks from within and without Utah over his stand on illegal immigration — a stand that Cannon maintains has consistently been misconstrued by political opponents as his support of full amnesty. In reality, he said that he is supportive of guest worker permits, but not for those already in the country, a message he hopes will be clarified by the passage of some sort of immigration reform before the primary ends.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; jloftin@desnews.com