http://www.rockymountainnews.com

Tancredo PAC ads may sway Utah race
Primary is setting of intraparty fight on immigration

By M. E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
June 24, 2006

His name won't appear on the ballot next week, but Rep. Tom Tancredo is the phantom factor haunting a Republican congressional primary in Utah.

Littleton's immigration-reform firebrand insists he's keeping his distance from the intraparty fight between longtime congressional nemesis Rep. Chris Cannon and his wealthy challenger, John Jacob.

But the political action committee Tancredo founded, the Team America PAC, has been running ads targeting Cannon. Jacob accuses the incumbent of trying to "sound like Tancredo" lately to mask a soft record on illegal immigration.

And Cannon blames Tancredo for trying to "engender fear" and meddle in his district.

"There's a lot of personality involved here," Cannon said in an interview this week. "What we really have going on is an attempt to use a relatively small segment of energized people to gain influence and control of maybe the Republican Party.

"The Republican Party is never going to be Tom Tancredo's party," Cannon said. "He's more likely to join Pat Buchanan out there" and turn independent.

Tancredo might not agree with Cannon, but he is glad about how his pet issue - illegal immigrants - has come to dominate the Republican primary in southwestern Utah.

"We've already won, I think," Tancredo said. "Those who care about the issue of immigration reform have achieved a great victory in that the incumbent, who should have a perfectly safe seat, is fighting for his life."

Cannon is one of President Bush's closest allies on immigration issues - a longtime backer of a "comprehensive" reform package including some form of a guest-worker plan.

That's one reason why pundits, national media and activists on both sides of the immigration divide view Tuesday's primary in Utah's 3rd Congressional District as a sort of referendum on, if not Tancredo, then the hard-line position that has made him famous.

"Whatever decision (voters) make, Utah is going to send a mandate to Washington, D.C.," Jacob said in an interview.

Jacob said that if he wins, it would mean people want an enforcement-only approach to dealing with the more than 12 million people in the country illegally.

"I believe Cannon is a rubber stamp for the president. It proves Chris is not tough on illegal immigration," Jacob said.

If Cannon wins, Jacob said, "You should interpret it as the country's in trouble."

Cannon disagrees, and he's hoping his re-election sends a message that most Utahns reject "the extreme anti-immigrant types."

"I think the bulk of voters in Utah will not be that way," Cannon said. "It's clear you've got people out there beating one drum and beating it loudly."

One group turning up the volume is the Team America PAC, which Tancredo founded but no longer controls. Through June 16, it had spent $40,500 on radio ads targeting Cannon for allegedly "deceiving the public as to where he stands" on immigration, said Bay Buchanan, who runs the group.

Cannon's campaign fired back, accusing critics of a smear campaign that would not work. Still, backers of the "comprehensive" approach to immigration reform rushed to Cannon's aid.

First lady Laura Bush produced a recorded message touting Cannon.

And in the past three weeks, he has collected just under $150,000 in late-campaign contributions, including many affiliated with industries that, Buchanan says, stand to benefit from lax immigration policies.

"I can assure you, the people who are sending him money don't send money unless they've seen the polls," Buchanan said.

This isn't the first time Cannon has been targeted by hard-line opponents of illegal immigration. Despite critics' predictions of his demise in 2004, he survived a challenge from fellow Republican Matt Throckmorton and went on to win his fifth term.

"There's no love lost, that's for sure," Tancredo said this week. "I wouldn't cry buckets of tears if he were to lose this. But I have no involvement."

Cannon scoffed at that claim.

"Because of this race, (Tancredo) probably has increased the fear factor among other members (of Congress)," Cannon said.

Among some of them, "There may be a tendency to vote his way on some issues," he said. But he quickly added, "I would not count on my vote."

sprengelmeyerm@SHNS.com