Immigration splits Cannon, Jacob

PROVO — The phone recently rang in the middle of the night at Utah Congressman Chris Cannon 's Virginia apartment. It was 3 a.m., and a man from South Carolina had a question.

"I want to know why you're such a traitor on this issue of immigration," the man said.

The next night, a man from Colorado called at 1 a.m. with a similar question.

And last week, a local paper published an editorial cartoon titled "Primary Colors" that portrayed Cannon as black-and-blue with bruises and a puffy eye. He was holding a paper with the words "Immigration stance," and the paper was riddled with holes.

So Cannon had to laugh when Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., proposed a new plan for comprehensive immigration reform just a few weeks ago only to be attacked by people on all sides of the issue.

"He came to me and said, 'Chris, how have you suffered these slings and arrows for the past two years?' " Cannon recalled.

The solution is simple for Cannon, whose primary challenge by fellow Utah County resident John Jacob is seen around the country as a test case on how immigration will play out in the November general election. The five-term incumbent said he just tries to cut through the emotion and talk policy.

"I'm thick-skinned enough that if somebody irrationally calls me a traitor, it doesn't bother me," he said.

The death of his daughter, Rachel, in December 2004 — just after Cannon won re-election after a race also colored by immigration — did get under his skin.

Rachel Cannon was 25, and her father dealt with a lot of anger after her death from cancer. The hurt remains close to the surface both for him and his wife Claudia, who has struggled as people on the campaign trail, who haven't seen her for two years and don't know about what has happened, ask how Rachel is.

It took more than a year, but by the time he announced he would seek a sixth term this year, Cannon said he'd found some peace.

"My experience with Rachel's passing was profound, but I think it only deepened my spiritual way of looking at life. It made me more sensitive, certainly more sensitive to the struggles of other people."

Cannon is more philosophical now, those around him said. Still driven and frequently wound up over issues, he shows a softer side more frequently, said Joe Hunter, his chief of staff.

"I probably am more philosophical," Cannon said. "I don't react emotionally as much."

Political target

That might prove helpful.

On various illegal immigration-restriction Web sites, Cannon's face is alternately seen in a circle with a line drawn through it or with a target laid over it. Other restrictionists have used a cartoon clown in place of his face, or a donkey, implying he's liberal on immigration.