Several items this week on the 1994 elections:
- Democrat Pat Shea is keeping up an aggressive schedule, still going after Sen. Orrin Hatch, even though Hatch is way ahead in the polls and Shea's money isn't coming as he'd like.It's important that Shea run hard until the very end, even if he knows what's going to happen on election night.
As the head of the ticket, a quiet Shea/Hatch race could mean Democrats and moderate independents won't become excited enough to vote. And that would have repercussions down the ticket - especially hurting Democratic legislative candidates.
- Like Shea, 1st Congressional District Democratic candidate Bobbie Coray has failed to close on 14-year Rep. Jim Hansen like she hoped. Earlier this year, Coray, mainly because of her fine fund raising, was highly considered by national political gurus. Hansen's seat was listed as vulnerable by a couple of political newsletters and magazines.
But just this past week, Hansen was removed from the vulnerable list by such publications - mainly on his strong showings in the polls.
Hansen has a history of weak campaigns in off-election years. And Democrats had high hopes for Coray, an aggressive, bright campaigner.
In 1986, Hansen was almost nipped by former Rep. Gunn McKay, whom Hansen unseated in 1980. In 1990, Kenley Brunsdale, even though underfunded and lacking TV ads, made a last-minute run at Hansen. But Hansen held off both opponents in the end to win re-election.
Coray and Democrats thought this might be the year to get Hansen. But it appears the general anti-Democratic mood in the nation has been too strong, and Hansen, who has run a pretty good campaign this year, appears - a week and a half out - to be safe.
- Enid Greene Waldholtz admits hiring a private investigator earlier this year after receiving death threats and observing evidence of attempted break-ins at her campaign headquarters and someone trying to listen to her telephone calls.
Anybody remember the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races of 1992?
At the end of the Senate race, Democrat Wayne Owens called a press conference to lay out strange happenings during his campaign. His opponent was GOP candidate - now senator - Bob Bennett. Bennett was involved in the Watergate mess that brought down former President Richard Nixon. Bennett owned a public relations firm and had Howard Hunt on staff. Hunt was working part-time for Nixon's re-election campaign, and Hunt oversaw the Watergate break-in. Bennett was never implicated in the break-in and today denies all knowledge of it beforehand.
Owens was clearly trying to tie Bennett's campaign into dirty, Watergate-type tricks. It was a sad ending to Owens' political career. And I think most Utahns saw the claims for what they were - desperate last-minute attempts to draw nearer to a leading Bennett.
In the '92 governor's race, GOP candidate Richard Eyre's campaign staff said on more than one occasion that someone was trying to tap their phones or listen in to their strategy sessions in their headquarters - housed in a less-than-secure part of an old car dealership. Those claims rang hollow as well.
Waldholtz's hiring of a private investigator doesn't fall into those categories. She didn't call a press conference, like Owens did. She apparently didn't "leak" information about bugging to the press over and over again, like Eyre's campaign did.
Still, the public will have to decide if her fears - some may say paranoia - have a bearing on this election. Waldholtz doesn't believe or say that her problems have anything to do directly with the campaigns of her opponents, Democrat Karen Shepherd or Independent Merrill Cook. But both Shepherd and Cook say Waldholtz could be using her problems to help her campaign and cast shadows on theirs.
Getting a death threat is no joke, and it's difficult to ignore. Shepherd says she received death threats after some of the tough votes she made in Congress. She says she didn't hire a private detective, just asked local law-enforcement leaders what she should do.
Hatch received such serious threats several years ago he had Secret Service protection for a while and even got a special license to carry a concealed weapon himself. Hatch declined to talk about those incidents.
Waldholtz's private detective is just another twist in an increasingly bitter race in the 2nd District this year.