GOP nominee for Congress goes east to raise funds

He ran convention and primary campaigns on a shoestring, but now Jason Chaffetz will have plenty of resources.

Chaffetz, the Republican candidate for U.S. House District 3, is in Washington, D.C., this week talking policy and raising money from political action committees -- probably a lot of money. For example, the National Republican Congressional Committee alone gave him $4,000.

"People are very intrigued with what we were able to accomplish," Chaffetz said of his thrashing of Republican six-term incumbent Chris Cannon in the June 24 primary.

Whither the little guy?

Chaffetz made a lot of hay saying his donor list was made up of individuals and hammering on Cannon's lobbyist donations but said Tuesday he meant only to the extent that his opponent was heavily relying on them.

"My criticism was the lack of balance," he said.

Chaffetz said he's meeting with, among others:

• The American-Israeli PAC

•¬ Air traffic controllers

•¬ Qwest's PAC

•¬ Microsoft's PAC

He's also talking shop with a number of politicians including Reps. Wally Herger and Brian Bilbray, both R-Calif. The latter is the chairman of the conservative leaning Immigration Reform Caucus. He'll be meeting Friday with one-time presidential candidate and Utah political crush Mitt Romney in Boston.

"I know him quite well," Chaffetz said.

You may not know these guys well

With Cannon out of the way, he now faces Democrat Bennion Spencer and Constitutionalist Jim Noorlander, who garnered 10 percent of the vote in 2006. Spencer likes his odds now that Cannon and his incumbency are out of the way.

"This is an open seat as far as the Democrats are looking at it," he said. "We've got a lot of stuff falling into place for us."

He'll probably need some money to compete. The most recent Federal Election Commission filing shows him with zero dollars, though Spencer says he has $10,000 in the bank and commitments for $25,000. He's an international relations and globalization professor at the private Neumont University in South Jordan. He said his campaign will revolve around energy issues and the environment.

"His position on global warming has got national attention," Spencer said of Chaffetz's repeated statement that global warming is a farce. "There's a whole national constituency looking in on this race."

Good luck with that

Whatever your political leanings or stance on global warming, one thing remains true: A Republican victory in the 3rd District is as sure as the sunrise.

" 'No' is the answer," said Kirk Jowers of the Hinckley Institute of Politics when asked if there's a chance the GOP will lose the seat. "The only chance that they have is if Chaffetz pushes the rhetoric a little too far."

Chaffetz does have a history of taking on the GOP establishment, saying his party needs to get its house in order. He says that is the reason he ran against Cannon in the first place, even though he lives in the 2nd District -- not the 3rd District.

Jowers said even though Chaffetz has run a volunteer campaign with relatively little funds, the time has come for him to step up.

"Hopefully he'll keep the grassroots part to him, but you can't avoid raising money to compete," he said. "I think it makes a lot of sense that he does try and get a little bit of money in the bank to protect against any unforeseen circumstances.

"Part of it is to show he can do it."