Demos see 3rd District hope; Chaffetz laughs

With Republican Rep. Chris Cannon already beaten in his 3rd Congressional District re-election bid, do Utah Democrats really have a shot at recapturing this GOP fortress?

Ask Jason Chaffetz, the Republican who defeated Cannon in last month's primary, and he laughs. Chaffetz says he will be the next 3rd District U.S. House member. "We'll keep on doing what we've been doing — working hard, working at the grassroots level. And we'll win."

Ask Bennion Spencer, the Democrat in the race, and he believes he starts the general election campaign as maybe a 20-percentage point underdog — but still with a shot at getting the 3rd District back in Democratic hands, where it was from 1990 to 1996.

"The whole dynamic has changed" with Cannon's defeat, Spencer said.

A measure of the viability of a campaign is how much money it raises. New filings show Chaffetz and Spencer are essentially now starting from scratch and are not far apart in money, a stark contrast to the 2nd District race between Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and GOP nominee Bill Dew.

Spencer's new filing with the Federal Election Commission shows he has only raised $10,785, has loaned his campaign $4,500 and has $2,719 in cash.

Chaffetz has raised $208,359 and spent $190,450, leaving him with $17,908 in cash — not that much, but about $15,000 more than Spencer.

Still, that is tighter than in the 2nd District. Matheson has amassed $1.33 million in cash on hand, compared to $213,468 for Dew. That is more than a $1.1 million difference.

(Also, Dew, a homebuilder, has provided out of his own pocket 86 percent of all money he has raised. He has loaned his campaign $349,000 so far, including $99,000 in the last quarter.)

Both Chaffetz and Spencer say they now have a whole new race.

"This is now an open seat," said Spencer, a TV producer and writer. "With 98 percent of House incumbents winning re-election, we don't have an incumbent now. It's all different."

"I'm the Republican (Party) nominee," countered Chaffetz. Fundraising and his reception among Republicans in Washington, D.C., "has changed — it is completely different." Chaffetz just returned from a D.C. fundraising/get-to-know-you trip. "We've raised tens of thousands of dollars that won't be reflected in this latest report because of the reporting deadlines," Chaffetz said.