Mathesons on the march

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson holds a commanding lead over GOP challenger John Swallow in the 2nd Congressional District, while his older brother, Scott, is improving in the governor's race, closing in on Republican Jon Huntsman Jr., a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows.

Republican incumbents in other major Utah races hold healthy leads over their Democratic challengers, pollster Dan Jones & Associates found.

And, as expected, President Bush holds a big lead over his Democratic challenger, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in Utah, as well.

Jim Matheson holds a 31-point lead over Swallow, 61-30 percent, found Jones in a survey conducted last week. Among those who said they were very interested in the race, the lead holds up as well, Jones found.

The 2nd Congressional District's boundaries were redrawn in 2001. And in 2002 Matheson barely beat Swallow in a district that some say is 60 percent Republican. So far, this rematch has not proved as close.

However, Jones, who has polled in Utah for 30 years, said he expects the race to close up as the Nov. 2 general election nears.

But Jim Matheson told the newspaper last week that he's pleased with his poll numbers (he had not seen the new poll at that time), and that his lead may be one reason some independent, outside groups had not been running anti-Matheson TV and radio ads against him this year, as they did in his 2000 and 2002 elections.

In the governor's race, Scott Matheson Jr. still trails Huntsman, the new poll shows. But that gap has narrowed to 10 percentage points — 49-39 percent.

Jones surveyed 915 adults statewide for the governor, U.S. Senate and attorney general races; the margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percent. He surveyed around 300 people in each of the three U.S. House districts; margin of error plus or minus 5.5 percent.

A July poll for the newspaper and TV station had Huntsman ahead of Scott Matheson, 51-38 percent.

The newspaper asked Jones to cross-tab the results in the two Matheson contests, to give some indication of which 2nd District voters support Democrat Jim Matheson (who leads in his race), but then switch over to support Republican Huntsman (who leads in his race).

Jones found that 24 percent of the people who said they support Jim Matheson's re-election in the 2nd District switch political parties and support Huntsman in the governor's race.

Will Scott Matheson work with brother Jim to try to grab some of Jim's 2nd District supporters?

"No," said Mike Zuhl, Scott Matheson's campaign manager. "There has been no coordination at all between the two campaigns and there won't be."

You will see no ads showing the two Mathesons together, Zuhl added.