After 15 years of campaigning and $3.5 million of his own money, Merrill Alonzo Cook is back where he started. At 56, he begins again — out of office after his term ends and at odds with Utah's powerful Republican Party hierarchy.
Cook, the trouble-plagued, born-again Republican incumbent in the 2nd Congressional District, was soundly defeated by newcomer Derek Smith for the GOP nomination in Tuesday's primary. Final but unofficial tallies gave Smith 59 percent to Cook's 41 percent of the vote.
In other top primaries, GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt coasted to victory over challenger Glen Davis, 62-38 percent, and Salt Lake County Commissioner Mark Shurtleff crushed fellow attorney Frank Mylar in the GOP attorney general's race, 63-37 percent.
Turnout across the state, according to the Lieutenant Governor's Office, was 17 percent of all registered voters. That is better than the 14 percent turnout for the 1998 primary and equal to the 17 percent turnout in 1996.
Cook said he would take several weeks or a month to decide his future. But he promised he'd run for some office, federal or state, again. And he clearly opened the door to quitting the Utah Republican Party (for the second time) and becoming an independent.
"Whatever I launch, even an independent party, I will look to helping the people of this state and district," Cook said Tuesday night. "We need independent-minded Republicans in this party. But the leaders don't see that. So many independents have been driven out" of the party.
He congratulated Smith but specifically didn't endorse him. "I will listen to the debate this summer before deciding who I will vote for in November," said Cook, who also took the opportunity again to say Smith should "fully disclose who he sold his stock to" in raising the personal cash he put in the race.
Ironically, in years gone by it was Cook who spent his millions on his elections, while it was Smith's $537,000 spent on the primary race that helped do Cook in.
Smith, 35, smiling and relaxed in victory, said Tuesday night his total campaign budget "is under $1 million." And while he expects to get considerable contributions now that he's the GOP nominee, he'll still put some of his own money into the final election if need be.
Smith predicted he'll do well with general election voters. "As I walk the streets of the district, you can't believe how many people come up to me to talk about education and tax reform, all the issues I want to talk about."
The co-owner of an Internet computer company, Smith said he expects the final campaign to be devoid of the nasty debate he had with Cook.
According to the State Election Office, Cook's loss is the first time in more than 50 years that an incumbent Utah congressman lost his party's nomination in re-election. The November election, where Smith faces Democrat Jim Matheson, will tell whether district Republicans made the right move in dumping the incumbent to take a chance on the novice challenger.
"This race was Monsonized by the party elite," said Cook, referring to 1986 when GOP leaders persuaded then-GOP 2nd District Rep. David Monson to step aside and retire, fearing he couldn't win re-election. Ultimately, Republicans lost the seat to Democrat Wayne Owens.
Cook wasn't predicting the same thing Tuesday night but said the party in this election had been captured by the "powerbrokers, lobbyists and special interest groups" that Cook believed backed Smith instead of him.
Cook was backed by U.S. House GOP leaders, who said it's critical Republicans hold Utah's 2nd District to keep a GOP majority. But other major Utah GOP officeholders stayed officially neutral, declining to campaign for Cook. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, endorsed Smith. And some former GOP leaders supported Smith, with former Gov. Norm Bangerter even conducting a turn-out-the-vote campaign for Smith.
The Cook/Smith contest wasn't really moderate-vs.-conservative. It was about Cook himself — his personality and 18 months of bad press over erratic behavior, staff firings and a contentious court battle with a former campaign consultant, which Cook lost.
But the Leavitt/Davis and Shurtleff/Mylar races definitely had political philosophical ramifications.
After Leavitt was forced into a primary with Davis by a booing, discontented right wing at the state Republican Convention, and Shurtleff and Mylar debated the wisdom of new abortion battles and assaults on pornography, the moderate-to-conservative Republicans in Utah clearly carried the day Tuesday over the more right of Utah's majority party — despite a low turnout that favored dedicated political diehards.
Still, Leavitt, who went to great lengths to make up with disenchanted party members, said he worried all evening.
"I didn't know what to expect given the turnout," he said. "The important thing was we're on to the general election now."
Turnout in the 2nd District was only 12.5 percent, poor even by primary standards. Cook said his own poll tracking told him he could have won if "most of the voters had turned out. The turnout killed us. I don't know what we do about that," Cook said.
Other areas across the state that may have had heated legislative or county races did better.
Democrats had only one interesting Wasatch Front race, the County Council District 6 race between former County Commissioner Pete Kutulas and county firefighter Chris Cage. Kutulas won by just 20 votes over Cage, who said he will probably request a recount.
Both Smith and Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Bishop, who was at the Smith victory party in a downtown hotel, said they hoped Cook would stay in the party. Neither wanted to discuss any possible problems should Cook jump from the party — even endorse Matheson.
"We've had three-way races in the district and state before and the Republican has won," said Bishop. "Congressman Cook should remain a good, loyal Republican. We want him. He's served well."
Bishop denied that any party officer played favorites. The fact that other GOP officeholders, like Leavitt and Sen. Orrin Hatch, didn't endorse Cook "is a matter of their first amendment free speech rights. We as a party couldn't and wouldn't want to hinder their rights."
Cook wasn't as kind.
"This party doesn't want me. And I'll consider that in anything I do in the future," said Cook after a round of TV and radio interviews where he was lowkey and gracious. He said he and his wife, Camille, "will be on the first plane (Wednesday morning) back to Washington, D.C., where, as a lame duck, I will work hard for the good people of this district."
Cook gave his concession speech in a South Temple apartment complex just 100 yards away from the Utah State Republican Party headquarters. It was there 18 months ago that Cook's public downfall began when he stormed into the offices, screaming at party staffers for not including him in a November 1998 get-out-the-vote computerized telephone program. Party staffers, some of whom left party employment and this year acted as paid consultants for Cook's GOP challengers, said then he cursed them and was temporarily banned from the offices. Cook denied he used foul language but did apologize for the outburst.
Staff firings, public bickering with former staffers and an ongoing bitter disagreement with Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and his staff gave Cook bad headlines for more than a year. Cook blamed some of the bad press on political enemies within the top ranks of the Utah Republican Party.
Several other incumbents were knocked out Tuesday. Twenty-year veteran state House Rep. Evan Olsen, R-Young Ward, was turned out of office in a Cache County vote. And five county commissioners, most of them Republicans, were also turned aside by primary voters.