Outside money absent from race

Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson is used to big money coming into his 2nd Congressional District re-election campaigns — money to pay for negative ads run against him, money helping his GOP opponent or cash spent on pro-Matheson ads.

But so far in 2006 that traditional outside cash hasn't shown up.

Matheson has already seen the U.S. Chamber of Commerce running two pro-Matheson TV ads — ads that ended Friday by Federal Election Commission law. But there's been no major spending by national party PACs either for or against him.

"I prefer that elections be debates between candidates and the voters," said Matheson. So he would welcome having no outside groups running ads — be they positive or negative. "I'm guessing we won't be seeing" large sums of outside money this election if we haven't seen it already, Matheson said.

Independent groups may be staying out in part because Matheson holds a healthy lead over GOP challenger LaVar Christensen in the polls. In addition, several Washington, D.C. pundits have put Utah's 2nd District in the "likely Democratic" election column, little danger of going to Republicans.

"I'd like to think that I've established myself as a real strong candidate," said Matheson. "So these groups chose to spend their resources elsewhere."

Christensen, a state representative from Draper, says he doesn't know if any outside groups will come in, but he'll just keep on talking about why Utah and America need dependable conservative representation.

"America needs Utah," Christensen says. He says his election "could tip the balance in the right direction" as Republicans could otherwise lose their majority come November.

Two conservative GOP groups, the Club For Growth and the National Republican Congressional Committee, who dumped big bucks into the 2nd District in 2002 and 2004 have so far stayed out. Also not seen are any Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pro-Matheson ads.

In 2004, Club For Growth had spent just over $200,000 by mid-September in anti-Matheson and pro-John Swallow (Matheson's GOP opponent) advertising. It was Swallow's second run at Matheson, having lost to him two years before by less than 1 percentage point.

Also in 2004 the National Republican Congressional Committee — the national GOP's U.S. House political action committee — dropped in more than $1.1 million in TV and print ads that either supported Swallow or attacked Matheson.