Thread: Jacob rips Cannon, Bush

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Deseret Morning News, Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Jacob rips Cannon, Bush

By Tad Walch
Deseret Morning News

So what do you do if you're John Jacob, a Republican running against a five-term incumbent from your own party, Chris Cannon, and you learn the Republican White House has endorsed Cannon?

On Monday, a day after learning first lady Laura Bush is endorsing Cannon in a recorded phone message to voters in Utah's 3rd Congressional District, Jacob decided to criticize President Bush, saying the president supports illegal immigration and painting Cannon as Bush's water boy.

"Chris can't have it both ways," Jacob told KSL-TV. "He can be on the president's side, or he can be on the side that's against illegal immigration."

In an early morning debate on KCPW 1010 AM, Jacob said to Cannon, "You've been on the side with the president. You've rubber-stamped his ideas, he's coming out to support you, so if you win, you'll stay on that side."

Jacob said that as soon as Bush proposed a guest-worker program in January 2004, U.S. borders were inundated by people immigrating illegally in hopes of taking advantage of the plan. This year, Bush and Cannon have backed off on parts of the plan, and Cannon is now accusing Jacob of backing a type of amnesty.

The tougher talk about Bush is a calculated gamble by Jacob, who has been painted into a corner by Laura Bush's endorsement, said an elections analyst at Brigham Young University.

"What Mr. Jacob needs to do is make this calculation about who his supporters are, and that's a very active and vocal contingent on this issue who have criticized the president and who have shown in previous election cycles they're willing to put resources behind rhetoric," said Kelly Patterson, director of BYU's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

"For a challenger in a primary to have really any chance of unseating an incumbent, he has to rely on this kind of outside help and influence and energy among a core of supporters."

One group supporting Jacob dialed down its rhetoric slightly over the weekend. The Team America political action committee removed from its Web site a picture of Cannon with a target over his face. But the site maintained a section on its front page dedicated to its effort to defeat "Chris 'King of Amnesty' Cannon in Utah."

Team America's ads deriding Cannon and urging Utahns to vote for Jacob also continued to run Monday on KSL 1160 AM.

"You talk about Chris having a target on him," Jacob told KSL radio talk-show host Doug Wright Monday, "but what kind of target do I have now" that Laura Bush has endorsed Cannon?

Patterson said it's no surprise a single issue is the major focus of the race.

"In a race where the two candidates are from the same party, their party doesn't differentiate them, even their ideology doesn't differentiate them. So they have to zero in on specific issue differences. The biggest is immigration."

The equation, as the candidates head into the final week of the race, is whether that issue is large enough to overcome the core support Cannon enjoys.

Jacob edged Cannon at the state Republican convention, winning 52 percent of the vote from state party delegates. Patterson said the going is now tougher for Jacob because an incumbent's base and resources grow at each stage, convention to primary to general election.

"This isn't a few hundred activists at a convention," Patterson said. "Now you're talking about potentially 20 percent of the electorate. Do you go with somebody who has a record of supporting the president, or do you go with someone who has criticized the president on this one issue?"

During the KCPW debate, Cannon said changing congressmen would hurt Utah, listing his influence on the judiciary committee that oversees patents critical to Utah companies, the money he has produced for Utah schools through regular consolidation of school trust lands, his endorsement by the NRA and even immigration, suggesting Jacob would arrive in Washington too late to affect the debate.

"These are all things that would change in a bad way," Cannon said. "We have the biggest booming economy of all time, and if you like that, vote to keep me."

Jacob said Congress needs fresh ideas, saying Cannon was in Washington while the national debt ballooned from $5.5 trillion to $9 trillion.

On immigration, he said, "In America, we abide by the law. When we don't abide by the law, we have anarchy." He added, "We're already in Iraq protecting other people, and we haven't secured our own borders."

He said Cannon supports the 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants and isn't strong enough about sending them home before they can be considered for legal status.

"I'm of the belief everybody has to go back," Jacob said. "These people have brought diseases, drugs, all kinds of things to our country."

Jacob admitted that he has not ironed out details of his proposed immigration FastPass, styled after the pass used at Disneyland. Park visitors can go to a ride, obtain a FastPass, and then return during a specific time and go to the front of the line.

Cannon pressed him on which illegal aliens would qualify for a FastPass. Jacob said it would not be for everyone, only those who had been in America for 10 to 20 years.

"If they've actually been here that long, show us the five Social Security numbers you've used, get an affidavit from your wife and children, you get a FastPass."

"It sounds like what some supporting you call an amnesty," said Cannon, who pushed for additional details.

"I don't know," Jacob said. "I still have to work that out."

"Everybody in Utah wants to know where you stand on this issue," Cannon said.

Patterson said the next week will be an interesting study in intraparty campaigning.

"By criticizing the president, Mr. Jacob effectively opens the door for Rep. Cannon to say, agree with him or disagree with him, 'I stand by the president.' That's a fairly effective appeal in (a primary), but the core critics on this issue aren't going to be deterred by that."


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