GOP Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Salt Lake City Wednesday for a fund-raiser for Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate John Swallow.
A Swallow spokesman refused to confirm the visit, but other GOP sources said Cheney would give a noontime speech in the Little America Hotel for Swallow, who seeks for the second time to unseat Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson.
Cheney is traveling around the country this week, stumping for various Republican candidates. He's out and about while President Bush takes a week at his Texas ranch, staying out of view as Democrats meet in Boston to formally nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to challenge Bush.
Over the past four years, Cheney has historically come to Utah several times each campaign season to raise cash for Republican candidates and causes.
In 2002 he came twice for Swallow, who narrowly lost to Matheson.
In early August 2002, a joint Utah state GOP and Swallow fund-raiser brought in around $250,000, officials said at the time. And the weekend before the 2002 election Cheney held a pep rally at a local airport, again trying to energize Republican voters.
Newly installed state GOP executive director Spencer Jenkins said the party can't participate in Wednesday's fund-raiser with Swallow, as it did in 2002, because of new campaign finance laws.
A native of Wyoming who served in the U.S. House between stints in various GOP administrations, Cheney remains popular here. Nationally, however, the vice president's job approval ratings have lagged as Bush pushes aside rumors that he may pick a different running mate this year.
Local officials wouldn't give any specifics on Cheney's visit. In the past, such affairs have been by invitation only. At the August 2002 event, GOP stalwarts paid $250 each to listen to the vice president, with a better-heeled group paying $10,000 each to join the state's Elephant Club and have a brief "round table" discussion in private with the vice president.