3rd Congressional District campaign interesting but not close

SALT LAKE CITY — Recent poll results show the race for Utah's 3rd Congressional District is not a nail-biter.

But there are some points of intrigue such as the political party changes among both major candidates.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a first-term Republican, had strong personal and family roots as a Democrat before switching parties in 1990. He then ran Republican Jon Huntsman Jr.'s successful gubernatorial campaign in 2004 and then was Huntsman's chief of staff for a short time before defeating Chris Cannon in a primary, which effectively served as the final election in 2008.

Democratic Party challenger Karen Hyer is a lifelong Republican — recruited by the Democratic Party in Utah County to run on their ticket in one of the reddest congressional districts in the nation. She said the Democratic Party promised she would not have to change anything about her conservative political construct as a candidate.

So while the Deseret News/KSL-TV poll of 201 active voters in the district shows 67 percent favor Chaffetz, Hyer said she is hoping to draw Election Day support from Democrats who feel disenfranchised because of their party affiliation in an overwhelmingly Republican district and state. She said she also hopes to draw votes from Republicans who feel disenfranchised by a GOP that moved so far from center it "has become more of an ideology."

The district includes all but the northeastern corner of Utah County, western Salt Lake County, Sanpete, Sevier, Beaver, Millard and eastern Juab counties.

There are three additional candidates in the 3rd District race: Libertarian Party candidate Jake Shannon, Constitution Party candidate Douglas Sligting and independent candidate Joseph L. Puente. The poll, conducted Oct. 11-14, showed the independent and minor-party candidates had voter support at 1 percent or less. The poll had roughly a 7-percent margin of error.

Chaffetz, who has an affinity for Twitter and other social media, has skillfully kept his name in the headlines during his first term, which began with national attention over his decision to sleep in a cot in his office rather than rent or buy housing in Washington. While eager to comment on any issue, his most high profile cause has been battle over full-body security scanners at airports. He says they are an invasion of privacy and is pushing legislation to ban them.

He most recently made headlines over a recent hostile exchange with the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, over whether Chaffetz agreed he would not challenge Utah's senior senator in 2012.