I've said nice things about Chris Cannon, who's been a forceful advocate of legal immigration, even as he's supported efforts to secure the border. I'm unaware of anything he's done to warrant his Republican constituents denying him renomination. There are some who seek to crucify him for not being enough against illegal immigration, even though he voted in support of the House border-enforcement-only immigration bill (HR 4437). I take pride that the Republican party has unifying principles, but does not demand the adherence to dogma that the Democrats do.
Anyway, it looks like his opponent has made a rookie mistake:
Jacob's bad luck: Is it . . . Satan?
Bedeviled: His business deals have been delayed, keeping him from fully funding his campaign
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
As if beating a five-term congressman wasn't hard enough, John Jacob said he has another foe working against him: the devil.
"There's another force that wants to keep us from going to Washington, D.C.," Jacob said. "It's the devil is what it is. I don't want you to print that, but it feels like that's what it is."
Jacob said Thursday that since he decided to run for Congress against Rep. Chris Cannon, Satan has bollixed his business deals, preventing him from putting as much money into the race as he had hoped.
Numerous business deals he had lined up have been delayed, freezing money he was counting on to finance his race.
"You know, you plan, you organize, you put your budget together and when you have 10 things fall through, not just one, there's some other, something else that is happening," Jacob said.
Asked if he actually believed that "something else" was indeed Satan, Jacob said: "I don't know who else it would be if it wasn't him. Now when that gets out in the paper, I'm going to be one of the screw-loose people."
Jacob initially said the devil was working against him during a Wednesday immigration event, then reiterated his belief Thursday in a meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board.
"There's a lot of adversity. There's no question I've had experiences that I think there's an outside force," he said.
The Salt Lake Tribune quotes a political science professor who presumably knows the constituency better than I, (it's largely LDS, and I am... not). He says this is unlikely to have a big negative impact. I accept that judgment. But it is amusing.
And lest you think that Jacob feels victimized, he believes that the Devil is out to get Chris Cannon as well:
Jacob, who like Cannon is LDS, said he is not the only one who is being opposed by Beelzebub. He said both Cannon and Sen. Bob Bennett have lost millions of dollars since going to Congress, and he believes their adversity is rooted in the same dark origins.
Cannon's campaign would not address whether Lucifer is opposing either candidate.
"Chris would not attribute any adversities to any outside influence," Cannon's chief of staff, Joe Hunter, said regarding Cannon's diminished personal wealth since going to Congress. "I'm not sure that Chris would even call them adversities. It's a conscious decision on Chris' part to do what's important to him. There's been far more important events in Chris' life than his business."
Jacob explained that, when people try to do something good, there are frequently forces that align to stop them.
"We have a country that was created by our Heavenly Father and it was a country that had a Constitution and everyone who came to America had strong faith. If that can be destroyed that would be the adversity. . . . Whether you want to call that Satan or whoever you want to call it, I believe in the last eight months I've experienced that."
Well, I can't imagine that this will HELP Jacob's campaign, particularly coming so close before the election. And Cannon's folks handled this the right way, politically, by not making a big deal out of it.
The primary is next Tuesday, the 27th.
Hat tip Captain's Quarters.
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