Cook's task: rebuild his life

His heroes are Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Disraeli, and it's easy to see why. Both men lost eight elections (sound familiar?) before they won a major office — Lincoln as president, Disraeli as British prime minister. Both were brilliant orators and both were a little at odds with strict party adherence. That's how Cook sees himself.

Cook has spent $3.5 million of his own money on his campaigns and another $500,000 to promote two initiatives he wrote — one for the removal of the sales tax on food in 1990 and the other for term limits on state and federal elected officials in 1994.

This is how impassioned he is by politics: With help from his wife and five children, Cook visited all 29 Utah counties to obtain the required 120,000 signatures for each initiative. He worked for two years on each initiative, standing outside stores and knocking on doors to get the signatures. In the end, both initiatives were placed on the ballot, but neither passed (the tax initiative was narrowly defeated).

But if Cook's intentions are genuine, friends wonder if his efforts are worth the sacrifice. Camille worries about the money her husband has spent on politics. Cook himself estimates he was once worth about $10 million; these days he says he might be worth $1 million, which includes the value of the heavy equipment owned by Cook Associates.

"Sometimes I tell him no more, but he doesn't listen," Camille said last fall in the midst of her husband's failed run for county mayor. "The stress is awful and the money it costs to run — we won't have anything left. But he just can't stay away. He loves it."

Camille, who like her husband is 58, teaches singing lessons in her spare time. Two years ago she took a part-time job as a secretary.

"We're not in very good financial shape," she says. "That's one reason I work."

Says Cook, "I have sacrificed a lot. People look at it in terms of what I spent on campaigns, but that's just a small part of the sacrifice. But I wouldn't change a thing. I loved what I was doing (in Congress) and have never been happier in my work."

A 'bookish kid'

Cook got hooked on politics at the age of 10 while watching the election returns during the 1956 presidential election on TV. He was fascinated by the unfolding drama of the vote count and the maps that showed how the states were voting. He was only 14 years old when he began holding mock debates with friends and neighbors, an election ritual he continued well into his 30s. Even while serving a mission for his church in Great Britain, Cook would spend part of his weekly day off thumbing through news magazines to get his fix of politics.