"I know this race can be won," Babka said. "People believe in this. I'm committed to them. I think the change is in the wind. I think he's vulnerable. Yeah, I'm not a Republican, but that's not going to matter."

Full of contradictions

Babka's wife, Kim, is registered as a Republican and teases Beau about his party affiliation. Before his race against Kennard, she told him, "I'm going out on a limb for you. I've always voted a straight ticket, but I'm voting Democrat."

She loves the reaction of the family's neighbors in Draper, who can't believe someone is "running as a D," she said.

But Babka is full of contradictions.

"My biggest saving grace was sports," he said. Those sports — he swam competitively, threw the shot put in AAU track and field and played youth soccer and basketball — kept him out of trouble.

"I was too big for football," he said with a laugh. "They had a weight limit."

They also began to create avenues to success as he lettered in football, basketball and track for three straight years in high school.

"I started to figure out you could lift (weights) and get big and the girls would be there," he said.

Football recruiters were there, too, and when the coach at UCLA moved to Hawaii, Babka went with him. He went on to play offensive line for the Rainbow Warriors, Delta State College and finally Arizona State University. Then he spent time with the Seattle Seahawks as a nose tackle.

But while sports helped, his real saving grace was an incredible self-discipline, an inner strength that matches his muscular strength — he has bench-pressed 665 pounds.

Rink Babka said he doesn't remember hurting his son but when prompted he did remember the boat incident. He said the neighbor had asked Beau to stay out of the boat because he worried it might get loose and run down the hill.

"That was unfortunate," he said. "I did grab him. He wasn't very big, and that was one time when the ratio between our sizes caused a problem. That scared the heck out of him, and I didn't mean it."

The father spoke with his son last week on his birthday and is quite proud of him, even though the Babkas have always been Republicans and Rink Babka played high school basketball with Jon Huntsman Sr. Still, he endorsed his son.

"He's been a leader since he came out of diapers, the kid always given the keys to lock up the gym. He has a big heart and a big conscience. It's amazing, but I've never known Beau to do anything really wrong."