Posted 10:33:00 AM by DO (link)

Politics in Action (For Once).

Res Ipsa readers will recall our extended coverage of this June's Utah Republican primary showdown. The incumbent won (as incumbents will) but not without being given a run for his money, literally. Despite out-spending his opponent, two term state legislator Matt Throckmorton, many times over and having the full support of the state GOP establishment (where his brother is Chairman!), fourth term incumbent Chris Cannon won by only 17 points. And it's no mystery why: Bush's point man on immigration in the House, Cannon has over the past several years devoted himself to promoting such wildly unpopular measures as the Bush amnesty and the disastrous AgJobs bill. Indeed, Cannon's done his job so well that, in 2002, he received MALDEF's "Excellence in Leadership Award".

Cannon no doubt thought he was home safe after the election. He's not. In an excellent recent article for the Salt Lake Tribune, Kirsten Stewart writes:

He has been accused of promoting mass immigration, terrorism and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Utah Republican Congressman Chris Cannon has paid a political price for his efforts to 'fix' the nation's 'broken' immigration system - not to mention mowing through 92 percent of his $472,000 campaign stash in a primary faceoff with Matt Throckmorton, an ardent advocate of immigration restrictions.
And though Cannon beat Throckmorton and is favored to glide past Democratic challenger Beau Babka to a fifth term, that alone doesn't account for his persistence as an immigration reform maverick who backs legislation apparently out of step with Utah voters - begging the question: Why?
[...] survey of Cannon's financial disclosures since 1996 shows Washington, D.C., and out-of-state interests steadily replacing his Utah support. Eight years ago, 85 percent of the individuals backing Cannon hailed from Utah; today locals comprise just 16 percent of his donor base.
A close look at who is giving also shows a sudden jump in contributions from immigration attorneys -- 23 of whom have poured $20,900 into Cannon's war chest. Most of the donations were made after the preprimary financial disclosure deadline.
At least five of the attorneys serve on the executive committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which helped Cannon draft the 'AgJobs' bill. And all of them stand to benefit from a provision in the bill requiring that immigrants applying for amnesty be represented by a lawyer.
The bill also gives illegals who can't afford an attorney access to public money.
'Cannon is giving us a policy we don't want. He's receiving money for introducing it and he's allowing people profiting from it, the immigration lawyer industry, to charge the taxpayers for it,' says [Project USA director Craig Nelsen].
Cannon's legislation is unpopular in conservative Utah. A Salt Lake Tribune poll in May showed 71 percent of Utahans opposed or strongly opposed laws that make it easier for undocumented immigrants to live and work in the state.

Reporting of this kind is a welcome relief from the maudlin human interest stories and scurrilous slur tactics that typify most immigration coverage. Perhaps that TIME cover story is already having an effect [Note: you can now read full TIME article here]. The most amazing aspect of this story, however, is that Cannon's challenger, Democrat Beau Babka, is now calling for genuine immigration reform, and characterizes Cannon's stance in the House as "reckless and foolish". Babka won't win, of course -- Utah's 3rd District is the most conservative in the country, and it is hard to imagine what exactly could succeed in pushing it into the Democrats' arms (short of an initiative to outlaw Mormonism). In most other states, however, that could easily happen.

There's a lesson here, I think, for Chris Cannon and his supporters in the national GOP establishment. There's a lesson here, come to think of it, for John Kerry, should he want it.

Thus must any effort to stop today's immigration idiocy begin.

(for more on the Utah election, see Project USA.)