I am writing with regard to Jerry Spangler's article of Aug. 20 that compared the differences between former Gov. Scott Matheson and Gov. Mike Leavitt.
I have great respect for Scott Matheson and the Matheson family, and enjoyed a good relationship with the governor when I was Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives.
Project Bold was an excellent idea and would have been a benefit for Utah. Sen. Jake Garn and I both introduced the bill in Congress, but it was stalled by those who wanted all of the land put into restrictive wilderness designations.
Since that time, Leavitt has been part of the team that has followed the same pattern and has given the state one school trust land exchange package even as we are on the threshold of another. He has worked tirelessly for reasonable use of the public land and worked on countless proposals in an effort to find compromise on many controversial public land issues.
In my opinion, no one has worked harder than Leavitt; Matheson was not up against the well-organized, well-funded, extreme environmental community of recent years, who never compromise on anything and who are influenced by mostly out-of-state interests. For example, Matheson's era predated the rise of such groups as the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Leavitt's accomplishments in the land exchange arena take on even greater significance when one realizes that SUWA's combative style of no compromise, and nationalization of local issues, is a force with which Matheson did not have to deal with.
Regarding the weteye bomb, Matheson opposed it strongly and could not stop it. I recall in one discussion I had with him, he had a hard time explaining his opposition to the weteye when his former employer, Union Pacific, was moving hazardous and toxic materials of nearly equivalent potency daily through Utah. To this day, many people feel that Matheson stopped the weteye when, in fact, that was not the case.
Regarding deployment of the MX missile, President Jimmy Carter concocted a plan to put the missile in Utah and Nevada. When President Ronald Reagan took office in January of 1981, he came out in opposition to the Carter plan. An amendment to kill the Carter deployment plan was offered to the Defense Authorization Act of 1982, which passed. This amendment became part of the bill and was signed into law by Reagan. One need only look at the Congressional Record for the date of July 8, 1981. This amendment is what effectively killed the MX.
If one feels the need to give credit to Matheson, then credit should also be given to the LDS Church and numerous other organizations that lobbied against the Carter plan. The fact is that it was congressional action that killed the MX deployment idea of Carter, and with all due respect, no one at the state level in Utah really had much to do with the outcome.
Having worked with both of these fine gentlemen, for whom I have the greatest respect, Leavitt's record easily holds its own with that of Matheson.
Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, represents Utah's 1st District. He was elected to Congress in 1980.