UTAH PRIMARY ELECTION: IS DEFEAT LOOMING FOR CANNON?

The Washington Times' Charles Hurt on tomorrow's Utah primary election:

Rep. Chris Cannon, the five-term Republican facing a stiff primary challenge here over his stance on immigration, has lost a comfortable lead and heads into tomorrow's primary in a statistical tie, according to the latest poll by the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Virtually unknown prior to his surprise victory over Cannon at a state GOP Convention in May, Jacob's new prominence -- and very real chance of winning in tomorrow's election -- is entirely the product of his opposition to Cannon's wildly unpopular stance on immigration.

The story continues:

Of those polled by Mason-Dixon, 91 percent said the issue was important. Among backers of Mr. Jacob, 97 percent said the issue is important and 69 percent said immigration is the primary reason they support him. And among supporters of Mr. Cannon, 64 percent said immigration is the primary reason they back him.

While Mr. Cannon says that he opposes granting amnesty to any of the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S., he has convinced many Republicans here that he's soft on the issue.

With defeat and early retirement looming, Cannon seems to have suddenly realized that shilling against the interests of the vast majority of your constituency can hurt come election day. Thus the Congressman's extremely lame recent efforts to pass himself off as a born-again restrictionnist, as in this exchange with Charles Hurt:

Mr. Cannon now says he opposes the Senate immigration bill that would grant citizenship rights to millions of illegals. He does, however, support a "guest-worker" program that would allow illegals to remain in the country indefinitely.

"But they wouldn't get citizenship," he said.

If they give birth to children while in the U.S. as "guest workers," do they then become citizens?

"Well, yes," Mr. Cannon replied when asked by The Washington Times. "But I'm willing to address that problem."

That's really convincing, especially given Cannon's track record. Here's how the Congressman addressed the issue back in 2002:

"We love immigrants in Utah, and we don't often make the distinction between legal and illegal."

Cannon may not make this distinction but the citizens of Utah do -- and will, if all goes well, at tomorrow's election.