Merrill Cook is in the 2nd Congressional District race, Jim McConkie is out (maybe).
Cook told the Deseret News on Monday that he'll announce his political plans for this year Thursday, "And I'm leaning very strongly to running" as a Republican in the 2nd District. "I'll probably do it," said Cook, who finished third as an Independent Party candidate in the 1994 race behind Enid Greene Waldholtz, now the GOP incumbent, and Rep. Karen Shepherd, D-Utah. Waldholtz has since fallen on hard times and isn't running again this year.Meanwhile, moderate Democratic candidate McConkie said Monday that unless the Democratic Party gets behind his candidacy and, in effect, promises no primary battle with Democrat Ross Anderson, he won't file and won't run.
Last fall, McConkie, an attorney, said he was in the race. He's since has hired staff, gone to Washington, D.C., wooing money and support and two weeks ago opened a Salt Lake campaign headquarters.
But Monday McConkie said "extremists" in the party are ensuring another failed Democratic election by supporting Anderson, a fellow attorney he termed a liberal, and pushing their one-issue causes.
McConkie, a practicing member of the LDS Church, said: "The (Utah) Democratic Party has had difficulty attracting Mormon voters. This should not be the case. The party cannnot win elections unless it respects and represents the feelings and values of a larger block of Utah voters.
"I cannot express to you how disappointing it is to me to see one-issue interest groups take this party hostage. Extremists silence dialogue, whether it is in the Middle East or in this country in the debates over abortion law, civil rights, homosexual rights, militias and gun control or any other issue. Over the last 10 years many moderate Democrats have left the fold because they've been made to feel marginalized by the extremists," said McConkie.
Giving as an example the 1992 governor's race, where "moderate" Democrat Pat Shea lost the primary to "liberal" Democrat Stewart Hanson, McConkie said, Hanson went on to place third in the final election. Democrats picking the liberal primary candidate, or beating up the moderate in the primary campaign, is so predictable it's become like "watching a video - all we have to do is press the play button."
McConkie said he got in the race at the behest of party leaders, but when Anderson entered the race, Anderson "pressed the play button" - ensuring another party disaster this fall. McConkie said he doesn't deny Anderson's right to run but said: "In my opinion (Anderson) is too liberal to be able to garner independent and Republican voters in sufficient numbers to form a coalition" to win.
McConkie said the party has a choice: Find another moderate to run against Anderson or get behind his candidacy. "In my judgment, it is better for me and the Democratic Party to face this reality now rather than on Nov. 6," Election Day, said McConkie. The filing deadline is next Monday, so the party has a week to make a decision.
Anderson said he was filing for the office Monday, adding: "Not only do I fully intend to stay in the race but win the Democratic nomination and the general election." He added that a letter was being sent to party leaders Monday listing "longtime Democrats" who support his candidacy. "It's ironic that Mr. McConkie resorts to labels (like `liberal') instead of talking about the issues. Independents and Republicans will support my common-sense approach to solving problems, especially fiscal problems, and will support me," said Anderson.
Cook said Monday he's well aware of the challenge before him - convincing GOP 2nd District convention delegates that he's a loyal Republican and the best person to represent the party. Even before Waldholtz announced she wasn't running again, three Republicans were in the race: Dave Harmer, a former Enid campaign/con-gres-sion-al leading staff person; Todd Neilson, a CPA and former FBI agent; and Carol Nixon, a former chief of staff to former GOP Gov. Norm Bangerter.
Cook was a Republican - he was the party's 1986 Salt Lake County Commission nominee - before he left the party in 1988 to challenge Bangerter as an independent. After losing to Bangerter, Cook then formed the Independent Party of Utah from the shards of the 1988 tax-protest movement.
In 1992 Cook ran for governor again, finishing a decent second place to GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt. In 1994 Cook ran as an Independent for the 2nd District and finished a disappointing third. Election night 1994 saw Cook foreswear elective politics and quit the Independent Party, saying he'd promised his wife, Camille, that he wouldn't run again.
After it became public last November that Waldholtz illegally used more than $2 million of "her own money" in the 1994 race, Cook charged that she "stole" the election. He then said Camille Cook had given him the OK to "finish" the 1994 race by running again in 1996, if he so desired.
At first, Cook talked about running as an independent again and, should he win, joining the Republican Party back in the U.S. House. But last month Cook met with Leavitt and other local GOP leaders and then publicly announced that he was rejoining the Utah Republican Party.
Cook said he attended the Salt Lake County Republican Party central committee meeting this past Saturday. The 2nd District takes in about two-thirds of the county and many of the county central committee members are voting district chairmen.
"I was warmly received. Nearly all the central committee members shook my hand going into the meeting and welcomed me back to the party. I was invited to speak by (GOP Salt Lake County) Commissioner Brent Overson, I did speak, told them I may well run (as a Republican in the 2nd District) and a number of central committee members who came to my house afterward said I got the loudest applause." Harmer, Neilson and Nixon also spoke at the meeting, said Cook.
"I know there are still some hard feelings (by some party members) out there, especially over me running against Republican candidates before," said Cook. Those feelings "will just have to sift themselves out through the party (nomination) process. I'm not changing my (political) views. I believe I will have a lot of support among party delegates," said Cook.
The state Republican Party has changed its nominating process this year. In the May state convention there will be a multiple ballot, with the bottom vote-getter dropping off after each round of voting. If in the final round one candidate gets 70 percent of the delegate vote, he's the nominee. Otherwise, the final two candidates face each other in a June primary election.