While most people are still shaking off the effects of the last congressional election, two 3rd District candidates are using the summer to fire up campaigns for 1996.
Republicans Tom Draschil and Parley Hellewell have their political feelers on. The official candidate filing deadline isn't until March 18, 1996. Nevertheless, the two conservatives are itching to get out of the chute. Both say with a Republican Congress, the climate is right to unseat three-term Democratic Rep. Bill Orton.Draschil, who narrowly lost to Dixie Thompson in last year's GOP primary, has already met with state and local party leaders. He has $80,000 of his own money to infuse into a campaign he expects will cost at least four times that to win.
"It's going to take $300,000 to $400,000 to beat him," Draschil said. "That's not really much compared to other campaigns. To tell the truth, we ought to be able to raise $500,000." No 3rd District candidate has come close to that, and Draschil concedes it probably isn't possible.
Draschil, a Provo real estate developer, is planning a trip to Washington, D.C., this summer to raise funds and coordinate some campaign plans.
A last-minute candidate in 1994, Draschil, 45, was well-organized in Utah County but neglected rural Utah. The district covers 18 counties on Utah's eastern side from Morgan to San Juan.
"Last time I didn't have time to organize in the outer counties," he said. Draschil said he expects to formally kick off his campaign in the fall.
Hellewell has already taken his campaign on the road. He said he was able to speak at county GOP conventions throughout the district - except Salt Lake and Utah counties - this past spring. Hellewell, an Orem resident who owns three plumbing businesses, has a seven-member staff in place.
The Hellewell campaign recently sent letters to GOP delegates statewide to gauge his and other potential candidates' name recognition. Although Draschil and Thompson scored higher than Hellewell's 65 percent, he said he was pleased with his showing.
Hellewell, 45, ran for the 3rd District seat in 1992, losing to Richard Harrington at the state convention. He chalks up the loss to inexperience.
"It was my first time running, and I didn't know too much about it," he said. He sees 1996 as a new ball game. "We're really prepared." Hellewell intends to announce his candidacy in September.
Like Draschil, Hellewell figures the campaign will cost about $400,000. He expects to have raised $5,000 by the end of this week, meaning he'll have to file a report with the Federal Election Commission. Draschil said he has a "few bucks" left over from his last campaign but he has not raised funds so far this year.
Neither candidate intends to change the message of his previous campaign. Both favor states' rights and stripping the Supreme Court and federal government of power they have accumulated over the years.
Hellewell wants to "return to God-like principles, which I think is becoming more popular than when I ran in '92."
Draschil sounded a similar chord, saying the Constitution should be interpreted in the tradition of the Founding Fathers, not Supreme Court decisions. "Since the (last) election more people have the guts to say that," he said.