From Deseret News archives:
2nd District race gets little GOP money
And unlike 2002 and 2004, we have not seen negative ads in Utah.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been running pro-Rep. Jim Matheson ads for weeks. But there's been no Matheson-bashing broadcast ads against the three-term Democrat.
We saw a number of those in campaigns past, historically taken out by the conservative Club for Growth and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The NRCC is the national Republican Party's arm that raises and spends millions of dollars to help Republicans get elected to the U.S. House.
Both groups have run some pretty hard-hitting anti-Matheson ads in the past. So what does it say that the club and NRCC have, so far, stayed out of the 2nd Congressional District race?
First off, Republicans are in danger of losing their majority in the U.S. House. Top priority for party and conservative groups is to shore up vulnerable GOP incumbents.
Various Congress-watching groups say upwards of 17 to 20 Republican incumbents are in danger of losing in November. Since Republicans hold a majority by a slim 15-seat majority out of 435 members, financial help needs to go to those incumbents.
Secondly, while Matheson has been seen as ripe for the Republican picking in 2002 and 2004 (after the Republican-controlled Utah Legislature redrew his 2nd District to make it more Republican), he is much stronger this year.
The Republicans' nominee is state Rep. LaVar Christensen, a conservative from Draper. A mid-July poll for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV found that Matheson leads Christensen 64-23 percent. That's the largest early campaign lead Matheson has ever enjoyed.
And no one especially the supposedly savvy groups like the Club for Growth and the NRCC wants to be seen as a political sucker. They may see large contributions to Christensen as a waste.
But Christensen is running a hard campaign he already has TV ads on broadcast and cable channels. Certainly, the race will tighten. After all, the 2nd District in non-Matheson races usually votes Republican, sometimes even heavily Republican.
Matheson has become a true Utah political anomaly. There are likely thousands of 2nd District voters who can't remember the last time they ever voted for a Democrat. Yet they vote for Matheson.
Another recent newspaper poll found Matheson more popular among his constituents than either Reps. Rob Bishop or Chris Cannon, both R-Utah, are among their own voters.
Comments
- Today on TV 12:49 a.m.
- Wanted: Bank robber with bad breath 12:40 a.m.
- Philippine police clash with clan 12:28 a.m.
- Officer responding to call killed 12:28 a.m.
- Editorial: Fine-tune state workweek 12:18 a.m.
- Let's keep energy money in the U.S. 12:18 a.m.
- How to pay for the war 12:17 a.m.
- Feast of Guadalupe nourishes soul 12:17 a.m.
- Obama's strategy is a road map 12:17 a.m.
- Letters: 'Political priestcraft' 12:17 a.m.
- BYU and Utah's bowl games
- Y., U. to learn bowl destinations
- BYU professor remembered
- The forgotten ship: USS Utah
- Branch president without a congregation
- Utahns want health care reform bills
- Kurt Bestor: Joy for the world
- BYU basketball: Cougars crush Dons
- Jazz upset by Wolves
- Urn of baby rests with sailors
- Letters: Liberal because LDS
257 - Y. profs: Beck not all-knowing
214 - Hate not limited to 1 in-state rivalry
189 - Aggies shoot past Cougars
179 - N.Y. Senate rejects gay marriage
130 - George lost in rivalry hatefest
113 - TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
110 - Unbeaten BYU takes trip to Logan
105 - Ed Smart 'appalled' at testimony
97 - Harpring's NBA career is over
95
First, a big thank you to all who posted questions here for me to ask...
Sorry earlier I meant to say that tracks seems to travel at 35 miles an hour...
'Peter Frumhoff, the director of science and policy at the Union of...
The Non-BCS crowd ought to create their own title game...their own brand, and...
That's the whole of your defense of GOP resistance to badly-needed ethics...
Your criticism should hardly be focused on Bennett alone. What about all the...
'Wired's Threat Level blog reported on November 20 that Gavin Schmidt, a...
The reality of climate change is supported by multiple lines of evidence and...
I had the priviledge of staying in the LeBaron home on severl occasions as I...
So the unemployment rate has dropped to "just" 10%, huh? I wonder what that...
Ahh for the love of money...what money can buy!!!


You can be the first to comment on this story.