For example, Skordas, who looked like a good candidate against Shurtleff early on, lost one of his major political edges when Shurtleff came out against Amendment 3, the anti-gay marriage change to the Utah Constitution that Skordas also opposes.

Then Skordas decided to become defense counsel for embattled Salt Lake County GOP Mayor Nancy Workman. He got a lot of free TV face time in court but not in a way some of his fellow Democrats may like.

Jones found that Skordas gets just 59 percent support among Democrats. Shurtleff, who is a pretty conservative AG, gets 15 percent of the Democratic vote and 47 percent of the independent vote. Skordas gets just a quarter of the independent voters; and a Democrat just can't win statewide in Utah with those numbers.

Bishop outpolls Thompson 45-30 percent among indepen-

dent voters in the 1st Congressional District.

Only Cannon, known for his conservative votes and positions, is having trouble with non-GOP voters, Jones found. Babka actually outpolls Cannon 43-38 percent among independents; but Cannon still gets 17 percent of Democrats in the overwhelmingly Republican 3rd Congressional District.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com