Demo gunning for Cannon

Did you get a little tired of hearing about illegal immigration during the 3rd Congressional District Republican primary?

Now that Rep. Chris Cannon has won the GOP nomination, his Democratic opponent, Christian Burridge, says immigration won't be the front-and-center issue for the final race.

Cannon's "poor record" will be, Burridge said Wednesday.

In Tuesday's primary, final but unofficial figures show Cannon defeated fellow Republican John Jacob 55.8 percent to 44.2 percent. Cannon received 32,306 votes to Jacob's 25,589. Jacob, a millionaire through water and land development, gave his campaign $413,000 — so he ended up spending just over $16 for every vote he received.

Illegal immigration was the main theme of the primary. An anti-illegal immigration political action committee — Team America — spent more than $40,000 on independent radio ads, slamming Cannon and praising Jacob.

Writing on the National Journal's Hotline, political analyst Richard Cohen said Wednesday that Cannon's victory reinforces GOP House incumbents across the nation. Where once Roll Call magazine, which covers Congress, placed Cannon as one of the 10 most vulnerable incumbents in the nation, with Cannon's solid win over an anti-illegal immigration candidate, the often shrill, but relatively small-in-number, anti-illegal immigration candidates are not faring well.

"Cannon's win continues a clear-cut pattern for GOP primaries that have been contested on immigration: Hard-liner, single-issue candidates continue to lose," Cohen said.

But Stuart Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Report called Utah's 3rd District primary "a skirmish" in the GOP national immigration war. "It wasn't settled there. You won't have much of a general election (because the district is so heavily Republican). Some who feel very strongly on the immigration question may stay home" in the final 3rd District election.

But Rothenberg said that won't affect the final outcome — Cannon wins.

Burridge, a consumer rights attorney, said that while he'll talk about immigration at times, he will mainly go after other areas of Cannon's 10-year voting record.

A winner of national debate awards while in college, Burridge says he'll try to meet Cannon face-to-face "anytime, anywhere."

Just a few of Burridge's comments about Cannon:

• "We deserve a full-time representative."

Burridge says he'll close his law practice if he wins in November. He charges that Cannon spends time on his private capital investment firms. Cannon says he doesn't spend time on private business, and that's the main reason he's personally lost tens of millions of dollars since his 1996 election.

• "I'm totally against gambling, especially in Utah."