Cannon victorious: Congressman crushes challenger, 56-44%

U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon dodged another political bullet Tuesday, winning the Republican Party's nomination for the 3rd Congressional District, late returns of the 2006 primary election showed.

Cannon withstood his greatest intra-party challenge yet, coming this year from John Jacob, a millionaire who pumped more than $400,000 into his effort to unseat the five-term incumbent.

Cannon won 56-44 percent.

In the end, Cannon crushed Jacob and all of his money — a victory near in size to Cannon's 2004 Republican primary win over former state Rep. Matt Throckmorton. And Throckmorton spent a fraction of what Jacob did.

Cannon now faces Democrat Christian Burridge of South Jordan in the heavily Republican district, which takes in western Salt Lake County, most of Utah County and several counties to the south.

While some votes remained to be counted, Cannon took an early lead, and he never looked back, holding roughly the same winning margin as results of more precincts came in.

Across the state, voter turnout depended on whether local races captured citizens' interest. Turnout was low in Salt Lake County, at just around 7 percent.

Voters had been using the new electronic voting machines for two weeks — taking advantage of the new early voting law. Several county clerks and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, the state election officer, all reported Tuesday the machines and poll judges performed well during the first full day of use.

As in Cannon's 2004 GOP primary victory, immigration was a key issue this Republican race as well. Cannon, R-Utah, is basically a backer of President Bush's immigration policy, which includes a guest-worker program. Jacob drew a hard line and got anti-illegal-immigration support from a number of quarters, including independent radio ads run by the conservative Team America political action committee.

"Things are looking very good," Cannon said late Tuesday, just before Jacob called him to concede the race.

Cannon said he hopes that should he win re-election in November, come 2008 the immigration issue will be settled and he won't find another "anti-immigration candidate" running against him within the Republican Party.

"We can solve this issue," he said. "Eighty percent of the American people want a reasonable solution."

Cannon said that most 3rd District voters never got to know Jacob. "And I believe I did get a bump when President and Laura Bush endorsed me — it was a high point in my campaign."