Thread: Immigration splits Cannon, Jacob

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,640187841,00.html

Deseret Morning News, Sunday, June 18, 2006

Immigration splits Cannon, Jacob

Incumbent a U.S. lightning rod

By Tad Walch
Deseret Morning News

PROVO — The phone recently rang in the middle of the night at Utah Congressman Chris Cannon's Virginia apartment. It was 3 a.m., and a man from South Carolina had a question.

"I want to know why you're such a traitor on this issue of immigration," the man said.

The next night, a man from Colorado called at 1 a.m. with a similar question.

And last week, a local paper published an editorial cartoon titled "Primary Colors" that portrayed Cannon as black-and-blue with bruises and a puffy eye. He was holding a paper with the words "Immigration stance," and the paper was riddled with holes.

So Cannon had to laugh when Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., proposed a new plan for comprehensive immigration reform just a few weeks ago only to be attacked by people on all sides of the issue.

"He came to me and said, 'Chris, how have you suffered these slings and arrows for the past two years?' " Cannon recalled.

The solution is simple for Cannon, whose primary challenge by fellow Utah County resident John Jacob is seen around the country as a test case on how immigration will play out in the November general election. The five-term incumbent said he just tries to cut through the emotion and talk policy.

"I'm thick-skinned enough that if somebody irrationally calls me a traitor, it doesn't bother me," he said.

The death of his daughter, Rachel, in December 2004 — just after Cannon won re-election after a race also colored by immigration — did get under his skin.

Rachel Cannon was 25, and her father dealt with a lot of anger after her death from cancer. The hurt remains close to the surface both for him and his wife Claudia, who has struggled as people on the campaign trail, who haven't seen her for two years and don't know about what has happened, ask how Rachel is.

It took more than a year, but by the time he announced he would seek a sixth term this year, Cannon said he'd found some peace.

"My experience with Rachel's passing was profound, but I think it only deepened my spiritual way of looking at life. It made me more sensitive, certainly more sensitive to the struggles of other people."

Cannon is more philosophical now, those around him said. Still driven and frequently wound up over issues, he shows a softer side more frequently, said Joe Hunter, his chief of staff.

"I probably am more philosophical," Cannon said. "I don't react emotionally as much."

Political target

That might prove helpful.

On various illegal immigration-restriction Web sites, Cannon's face is alternately seen in a circle with a line drawn through it or with a target laid over it. Other restrictionists have used a cartoon clown in place of his face, or a donkey, implying he's liberal on immigration.

Only in the emotional arena of the illegal immigration debate could President Bush and Cannon be labeled liberals. Cannon's voting record repeatedly ranks among the most conservative in Congress, but because he is to the left of some cantankerous groups on immigration, he has been a lightning rod since Bush announced his bid for immigration reform in 2004.

Bush proposed, and Cannon has supported, a guest-worker program that would allow some illegal aliens working in the United States to remain for a period of time, six to 12 years in various proposals, and for some of those to possibly earn the right to apply for permanent residence.

That irks many who believe it would reward people for a crime.

"Some see a real moral value in making them go home before they can reapply," Cannon said.

He said he does not believe in amnesty, saying his plan is not like the 1986 amnesty. Instead, with improved technology, borders would be tightened, the immigration system revamped and guest workers would be invited to continue contributing to the American economy.

Cannon's opponent in the June 27 primary, John Jacob, has called for sending illegals home with the promise they could use a Disneyland-style FastPass to return. Cannon said his own plan isn't an amnesty, but if it is, sending illegal aliens home with the promise of a return is the same.

Cannon has denounced the U.S. Senate bill that includes a path-to-citizenship provision. But he, like Bush, has indicated that he'd be willing to require illegal immigrants in a guest-worker program to return to their native country at some point before having the possibility of seeking permanent residence.

Cannon, like Bush, wants comprehensive reform now.

"This is one of the great issues of our time," Cannon said. "I hope we handle it well."

He also believes his stand is the most conservative, because it would protect America's economy and businesses. Illegal immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes and pour tens of billions into the Social Security fund, covering Social Security costs for thousands of Americans.

Groups against any guest-worker program are calling on supporters to attack Cannon, hoping that by knocking off one conservative, they would send a message to the White House and Congress. Cannon agreed that losing next week's primary would make comprehensive reform too hot in an election year.

"The result would be bad for America," he said.

If he wins, he plans to use his position as one of 15 Republicans on a House immigration committee to seek more high-tech visas so that the United States "can suck the brains out of all the other countries of the earth."

"The whole earth would be better off," he said. "If I lose, there will be no advocate for those visas at the table."

A pivotal primary

Cannon has lost weight recently but not because of an emotional toll. Instead, he wears a pedometer to make sure he takes 10,000 steps a day. He also takes a lot of nutritional supplements, more than a dozen a day.

Cannon can appear intellectually hyperactive at times, which doesn't always serve him well in debates or other public settings. He can lapse into a sort of congressional shorthand that might be fine in conversations on Capitol Hill but which voters can't follow as readily.

Interestingly, he is at his most personable on the radio, talking to KSL's Doug Wright or KFMF's Tom Barberi. A couple of weeks ago, his chair collapsed during a commercial break when Cannon was on Barberi's show. Barberi, once he learned Cannon was OK, teased him about being bucked off the chair.

"But you've got reflexes like a cat," Barberi added.

"And on the issues, too," Cannon gleefully shot back.

Campaign handlers would like Cannon to relax like that during debates. Jacob has seized upon Cannon's excitability, sometimes trying to goad Cannon in hopes the incumbent will appear flustered as he cranks into overdrive to defend himself or explain an issue with too much complexity.

Like trying to expound on the need for tighter laws so illegal immigrants can't use American emergency rooms as primary-care physicians or creating a law that would require anyone here on a temporary visa to have health insurance or a health-savings account.

Or how important it is to keep the Internet free of taxation. He is proud that he helped keep the federal government from regulating Internet phone service, which few knew about at the time but which is quickly becoming ubiquitous.

"I play a huge role in the future of America and the future of mankind. If we do things right with the Internet, the lives of people in America and around the world will be significantly improved."

Cannon has said that while polls show him ahead, they also indicate a low turnout on June 27 could lead to a Jacob win. If he loses, the millionaire who built his wealth as a venture capitalist is ready to pursue the same issues and policies through business.

But he doesn't want to go just yet.

"As long as my influence is increasing, I feel I have a moral responsibility to continue," he said. "My influence is increasing, significantly. I'm only the fifth or sixth Utahn to chair a committee, and I've been able to use it to beat up on New England lefties.

"The question is, are people going to be reasonable about this or decide I'm an ogre or a traitor and eject me from Congress?"


E-mail: twalch@desnews.com

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3951427

Cannon-Jacob race a battle of convictions
Incumbent swaps firebrand style for statesmanship
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - Call him the new Chris Cannon.

Not the fiery politician of the past, nor the rabid critic or the bomb-throwing partisan.

This Rep. Cannon is detail-oriented. He gives complex explanations about his convictions and talks at length about big issues. Sound bites aren't his thing anymore.

It's a transformation from the guy who eight years ago broached the idea of impeaching Vice President Al Gore along with President Clinton during the politically heated days of Monica-gate. Clinton's "reckless behavior has emboldened our enemies," Republican Cannon charged at the time. Democrats need to be converted, he said, and it was his mission.

The new Chris Cannon walks into the House chamber for a vote and walks out with Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay Massachusetts Democrat, and introduces him to a reporter to talk about how the two congressmen agree on boosting the economy while closing the gap between rich and poor.

The old Chris Cannon came to Congress in 1996; the new one wants to stay there.

Cannon, 55 - now facing what he agrees is the toughest primary race of his tenure - prefers working behind the scenes. It's not enough to spout bile on TV or the House floor, Cannon says. It's working with colleagues to get things done.

It's "an unbelievable change," says Chris MacKay, Cannon's former chief of staff. "He's come to understand that he can't just take a position, throw a flag in the ground and maintain that position. He tries to find a position that accomplishes what he wants to accomplish but also accomplish what others want as well."

That's the effect of 10 years in the U.S. House. And of life.

Cannon fully admits that much of his tone changed in 2004, when his daughter was rediagnosed with a rare form of cancer they thought she had beat. Rachel Cannon died in January 2005.

"It's significantly affected me," Cannon says. "It's made me much more passionate about getting things done that will make the world a better place."

That's driven much of Cannon's work on cancer-related legislation, including his new issue of releasing scientific studies to the world and not through a costly journal.

Behind the scenes work, though, doesn't make many headlines. And it doesn't work well for sound bites.

Cannon admits he thought about not running again for office but decided that he's still wielding influence for Utah, and the state needs someone with some seniority.

"The cost to replace me in Congress is high," Cannon says, "so I feel a really high level of commitment."

Being nuanced, though, has also hurt Cannon, forcing him into a GOP battle against water and land developer John Jacob, who is turning the primary election into a referendum on the highly contentious debate over immigration reform.

Cannon's immigration position isn't simple. He backs President Bush's call for a guest worker program and has worked to pass legislation allowing in-state tuition for children of undocumented workers. He says he opposes blanket citizenship for those in the country illegally but believes it impossible and economically devastating to send 11 million undocumented immigrants home.

To his detractors, that makes Cannon "pro-amnesty" - a dirty label to conservatives. He vehemently disputes the tag, but it's not something easily explained away in a 30-second ad.

"You can't do it," Cannon says. "You have to say, look here's my record; I don't support amnesty."

Cannon seems to have no trouble taking the hard-right conservative line on most other issues. He wants to scrap the federal Department of Education (and even put up a Web site to attract support), he stands firm that tax cuts are helping the economy and last week even voted against a spending bill for the war on terror because he said it was stuffed with too many pork-barrel projects.

On the forefront: Cannon could have stayed further away from the immigration issue; it wasn't a talking point for many members of Congress before this year. But Cannon wanted in from the beginning.

"Would I like to be watching on the sidelines?" Cannon asks himself as he enters the Rayburn Office Building. "No," he answers emphatically. "The fact is I want to be engaged in the issues of the time."

Cannon, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, pushed legislation to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition and then obtain legal residency. And Cannon introduced his "Ag Jobs" bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the country if they can show they are employed in farm labor.

President Bush embraced Cannon's proposal in 2004, but critics quickly challenged it as clear amnesty for lawbreakers. Groups, such as anti-illegal immigration Team America PAC, say Cannon's voted repeatedly for rewarding those breaking immigration laws and often bring up a comment he once made about how in Utah, people don't differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants.

Despite ratings as one of the more conservative members of the House (97 percent American Conservative Union score) and a solid voting record with his leaders (voted 96 percent with his party), Cannon is assailed by some who would normally be in his base. Chalk it up to immigration.

"It's an environment that's . . . a little toxic," Cannon says.


Beyond immigration: While he says he doesn't mind that immigration has been the centerpiece of this primary contest, he also wants to be known for his other work. In keeping with his complex persona, one of his proudest accomplishments is the "Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act," to block taxation of the Internet and e-mail.

As chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Cannon heads up legislation such as reform of class-action litigation and the new bankruptcy law. Cannon is the only House member from Utah to hold a chairmanship.

He admits it can be boringly titled but argues that the topics are sexy in some ways, too. The future of governing, he says, is through interstate compacts overseen by his subcommittee and not centralized decision-making.

Again, it's the new, detailed Cannon - a good thing, says House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

"What I can say is, in Congress there are workhorses and showhorses," Sensenbrenner says. "Chris Cannon is the workhorse. Workhorses get things done in Congress."

tburr@sltrib.com



Chris Cannon

Age:55

Family: Wife, Claudia; eight children

Education: Bachelor's degree and a law degree from Brigham Young University

Experience: Five terms in U.S. House; chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law; chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus

Professional: Owns Cannon Industries Inc., a venture-capital firm

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/183097/4/

Monday, June 19, 2006
Immigration dominates Cannon and Jacob debate

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY -- U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon advocated a guest worker program as one solution to illegal immigration while challenger John Jacob said illegal immigrants should be sent back to their home countries and then some of them allowed to return to the U.S. on a "fast-pass" program.

Immigration dominated the hour-long debate Monday between the two Republican candidates for the 3rd Congressional District seat. The primary election is June 27.

The debate was broadcast on KCPW, a public radio station, and available on its Web site.

Cannon said he favors a three-year guest worker program for immigrants that could be extended to encourage more movement back-and-forth across the border instead of immigrants moving here permanently.

"We need a system where people aren't hiding, but they come and go," Cannon said.

But Jacob likened a guest worker program to giving a car to someone after it's been stolen. Instead, Jacob said he favors offering a fast pass to return to the United States for certain immigrants who leave the country.

However, Jacob didn't outline exactly who would qualify for a fast-pass program.

He said immigrants who can prove they've been here for 10 or 20 years should qualify for a fast-pass program but was short on details. It was also unclear whether he would extend the fast-pass program to immigrants whose families would be split up after anyone who was in the country illegally was forced to leave.

"I don't have all the answers whether fast pass will work. I don't know yet, but it looks like a better idea than keeping everyone here," Jacob said.

Cannon attempted to steer the debate toward other issues, but Jacob continually brought it back toward immigration.

Cannon, who has served five terms in Congress, said Jacob is too inexperienced to be effective in Washington, D.C., on other issues of importance to Utah residents, such as collecting money from federal ownership of land to pay for education. Utah spends less money per student than any other state in the country.

"We'll have a freshman in Congress who doesn't know the name of the majority leader or the state he's from," Cannon said. "We won't have someone working on the judiciary committee pushing patents. Patent reform is vital to technology companies in Utah. These are all things that will change and change in a very bad way."

Jacob said everyone has to be a freshman Congressman at some point.

"We need more businessman in Congress and less professional politicians," Jacob said.

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