Cannon: Disunity besets U.S., Utah GOP

Utah is pretty predictable in its politics: Republican, Republican, Republican — and keeping those GOP incumbents in office year after year.

But Beehive State Republicans threw a curve in Tuesday's primary, catching other Utahns and national Republicans off guard.

Not only was Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, booted from the 3rd District seat he's held for 12 years, Cannon was thrashed.

Cannon lost to newcomer Jason Chaffetz by just over 9,000 votes. And while that is not a large loss by individual vote numbers, because of the very low voter turnout, Chaffetz won 59.96 percent to 40.04 percent, with just one voting district still not counted as of Wednesday. Any 60-40 victory is classified as a landslide by today's standards.

Hard feelings were clearly showing Wednesday as Cannon talked to the Deseret News in a far-ranging interview.

Cannon declined to endorse Chaffetz — adding that he got so few votes in the primary, he doubted anyone would see any relevance in his endorsement or see it as leading to any real support for Chaffetz.

"I look forward to getting to know Mr. Chaffetz a little better," said Cannon. And maybe an endorsement could come later this summer.

David Wasserman, U.S. House editor of the Cook Political Report, said there are always "a couple ingredients" to an incumbent losing. He said "anger at Washington" alone was not enough to sink Cannon, but the anger, when coupled with opposing views on immigration, did it.

But Cannon said he believes he lost for one main reason: very low voter turnout.

"The people who voted wouldn't have filled Edwards Stadium" — the football stadium at Brigham Young University — said Cannon. He added that now that he is free from elective politics he will be talking more candidly about what is going on in Utah and America.

"Clearly there are some out there who hate me. And every stinking one of them voted" on Tuesday, Cannon joked. Many who supported him "went to the lake" on vacation. Cannon said he had the best voter ID program of all his campaigns this year. "But for whatever reason, people didn't vote."

That is the great tragedy of this election, he said. It is not that he lost, but that so many Utahns "just didn't care" about politics and who should represent them.

Cannon said he wonders if Chaffetz can even win in November — even though the 3rd District is very Republican. The Democrats are banking on Bennion Spencer to change that.

"It doesn't take a genius to see that Republicans (in office) have lost the credibility of people in America and in the 3rd District." Can Chaffetz in just a few months "turn that tide of antagonism?" Cannon asked.