3rd Congressional District: Both candidates are party hoppers

PROVO — Texas Gov. George W. Bush had boots on under his suit and chewed on a cigar he would never smoke. He repeatedly called a Texas TV producer "Benny" instead of Bennion.

Bennion Spencer's visit with the future president of the United States and member of a Republican dynasty launched him down a path that now has him running as a Democrat for Congress in Utah's 3rd District.

A few years earlier and across the country in the Massachusetts home of Michael Dukakis, Jason Chaffetz argued about the death penalty with the Democratic presidential nominee as Dukakis stood on a chair and changed a light bulb.

Soon after, Chaffetz left the Democrats for the Republican Party and, ultimately, a race against Spencer that will determine the successor to six-term Congressman Chris Cannon.

Since Chaffetz and Spencer flip-flopped parties, their similarities are no surprise. As the Democrat in red Utah, Spencer is running closer to his brief Republican past while Chaffetz has bolted far from his old Democratic roots.

Raised a Democrat in Utah, the Republican Party began to reel in Spencer when he was a Weber State College student. He was the news director of a radio station when campaign workers for a wannabe senator named Orrin Hatch asked Spencer to salvage Hatch's radio spots.

"Hatch probably still doesn't know this," Spencer said, "but I rewrote them. I don't know if it made a difference in the election, but now I wish I'd done it differently. You can tell (Sen. Hatch) has been in Washington too long because he cares more about defending a fellow Republican like Ted Stevens than about corruption. It's time to check out and come home. He's lost his moral compass."

Now 56, Spencer earned a degree in broadcast journalism — and promptly took a job with the Republican National Committee, home of Karl Rove and Lee Atwater. His first assignment was to to go San Francisco and work on a special election to replace a murdered congressman. Spencer's RNC team lost badly.

"We just got creamed," he said. "The county chair ran the Democratic campaign against us. She was good. Her name was Nancy Pelosi. A lot of people can hate her in Utah, but I what I saw was a devoted wife and mother, very smart and talented, who was just good at politics."

Spencer left the RNC after three years to work in television news. In 1985 he joined KSL-TV, where he produced the 10 p.m. news for a decade and became close friends with legendary anchor Dick Nourse, who has endorsed him.