Chris Cannon

Christopher Black Cannon (born October 20, 1950) is an American politician who formerly served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, for the Republican Party, representing the third district of Utah from 1997 to 2009.

Chris Cannon
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Bill Orton
Succeeded by	Jason Chaffetz
Finance Chairman of the Utah Republican Party
In office 1992–1994
Personal details
Born	October 20, 1950 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Claudia Fox
Children	8
Education	Brigham Young University (B.S., J.D.) Harvard University

He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and attended Brigham Young University (BYU) as well as J. Reuben Clark Law School of BYU. From 1980 until 1996 he was a lawyer, business owner, and venture capitalist, from which he became a millionaire. Other jobs include time as an associate solicitor for the United States Department of the Interior from 1984 to 1986,[1][2] and time as Utah Republican Party finance chairman from 1992 until 1994. On June 24, 2008, he was defeated in the 2008 Republican Party third district primary by Jason Chaffetz, former chief of staff to then-Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.[3]

Family

Chris Cannon is part of the well-known Cannon Family of Utah. His brother, Joe Cannon is the former GOP State Party Chairman, and was appointed as Editor in Chief of the Deseret Morning News in November 2006.[4] He is the third member of his family to serve in the House, but the first voting member. His great-grandfather, George Q. Cannon, was a nonvoting member of the House from 1873 to 1881, while Utah was still a territory, whose son Frank Cannon was the state's first senator, as well as a non voting delegate.

Congressional career

In 1996, Cannon was the Republican candidate in Utah's 3rd District against Democratic incumbent Bill Orton, who had managed to hold the seat for three terms (all by fairly large margins) despite its heavy Republican tilt. This time, however, the district's partisan lean proved too much for Orton to overcome, and Cannon defeated him by four points. He never faced another general election contest nearly that close, and was reelected five times.

Cannon first entered the national spotlight in 1999, when as a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, he was one of 13 House "managers" who prosecuted the case against President Bill Clinton in the impeachment trial in the U. S. Senate.

Cannon was named Chairman of the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee at the beginning of the 108th Congress in January 2003, and has served as its ranking Republican from 2007 – 2009. He also served on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.

Cannon was also a member of the House Government Reform Committee. He served on the Subcommittees on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources as well as Regulatory Affairs. Cannon was also a member of the House Resources Committee, serving on the Energy and Mineral Resources and Forests and Forest Health Subcommittees.

In 2000, Cannon co-founded the Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control Methamphetamine, which has nearly 130 members from both major political parties in 2008.[5]

In January 2001, Cannon hired David Safavian as his chief of staff. Safavian left on May 16, 2002, to take a position at the General Services Administration. Safavian was arrested in September 2005 in connection with the Jack Abramoff corruption case, and was convicted in June 2006 on four felony counts.

In January 2003, Cannon was elected chairman of the influential Western Caucus, an organization of over 50 Congressmen working on resource management issues.

He was a cosponsor of HR 2043, legislation that would provide voting representation for the District of Columbia. The bill also gives another Congressional seat to Utah.[6]

Campaigns and challengers

Cannon was one of the most conservative members of the House. He has a lifetime rating of 96 from the American Conservative Union.[7] This is not surprising, as he represented one of the most Republican districts in the nation. President Bush received 77% of the vote in the district in 2004, his second highest percentage for a congressional district not located in Texas. However, during his last three reelection bids, he faced primary challengers running well to his right.

2004

In 2004, Cannon defeated Republican challenger Matt Throckmorton in the primary, getting 58.4% of the vote, in a race in which the major issue dividing the candidates was immigration policy. He then beat Democratic opponent Beau Babka 63%–33% in the November race. Cannon spent more than $600,000 to defeat Throckmorton and Babka. Throckmorton raised $84,000; Babka spent $35,000. The spending imbalance was offset to some extent by immigration reform groups that attacked Cannon through billboards, ads and Web sites, though these did not support his Democratic opponent.[8]

Primary

Cannon faced opposition in the primaries from a fellow Republican for the first five times he ran (and won), but his opposition in 2006 seemed potentially stronger. In October 2005, millionaire real estate developer John D. Jacob announced that he would run against Cannon in 2006.[8] In May 2006, at the state GOP convention, Jacob surprised Cannon by winning 52 percent of the delegate ballots to Cannon's 48 percent—a shocking result for a five-term incumbent. Had Jacob won 60 percent of the delegate ballots, he would have won the nomination outright and ended Cannon's career.[9] Team America PAC, a PAC dedicated to strict immigration enforcement, spent $50,000 on a radio advertising campaign attacking Cannon for his views on immigration ("A vote for John Jacob is a vote for cleaning up the immigration mess Chris Cannon helped make.")[10]

The Republican primary was held on June 27, 2006. Polls predicted a close race.[11] However, Cannon received 32,306 votes (55.8%) and Jacob received 25,589 votes (44.2%).

General election

Cannon faced Democrat Christian Burridge,[12] a consumer rights attorney and also a graduate of Brigham Young University's Law School, in November, as well as Jim Noorlander (Constitution Party)[13] and Phil Hallman (Libertarian party). In the general election, Cannon received 92,621 votes (58%), Burridge 51,396 (32%), Noorlander 14,116 (9%) and Hallman 1,998 votes (1%).[14] Cannon's 58 percent was somewhat closer than expected, given the heavy Republican tilt of his district.

2008

In 2008, Cannon faced two primary opponents—Jason Chaffetz, a businessman and chief of staff to Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. and David O. Leavitt, brother of former governor Mike Leavitt. On the first ballot at the state convention, Chaffetz received 59.01% of the delegate vote to Cannon's 40.9%. Chaffetz fell a few hundred votes short of clinching the nomination outright. Leavitt was eliminated, and immediately endorsed Cannon. Young Leavitt supporters then walked into the convention hall with newly toted signs in support of Cannon, which The Salt Lake Tribune termed "likely a violation of the convention rules." The rule supposedly referred to is "Physical Arrangements – 3(d)" which states "No signs may be placed in or around the staging area of the arena or in the convention hall between bleachers in the main Assembly Hall, except as approved by the State Party," which prohibits the placement of signs in the convention hall, but not the carrying nor holding of signs. The supporters were asked to leave the hall by the state vice chairman and exited when called upon to do so.[15][16]

In the June 24 runoff primary, Chaffetz beat Cannon by nearly 9,000 votes, 60%–40%, ending Cannon's congressional career. Immigration policy was again a significant issue.[17] Cannon refused to meet with Chaffetz after the election to discuss the Transition.[18]

Controversies

Premium Beef of Nebraska

Cannon's financial disclosure statements show that he gave a loan of between $50,000 to $100,000 to Gary Ruse, an executive and later president of First National Bank of Nebraska, in September 1996. The following year, the bank made a loan of $250,000 to the Premium Beef of Nebraska company, a kosher beef packing plant in which Cannon was a major investor. Ruse said in an interview he played no part in getting Cannon the loan. It was a decision, he said, that was made by the bank's board of directors; he had recused himself.

The Premium Beef plant operated for a little more than a year before closing its doors, after the rabbi who oversaw the preparation of the meat died. Cannon's chief of staff, Joe Hunter, said that the assets of the business were liquidated and Cannon repaid the loan to the Nebraska bank in 2001. The plant was sold to a Hasidic Jewish sect that took several years but finally reopened it in 2005. Ruse, who left the bank, was hired as manager for the reopened plant.

Cannon's personal loan to Ruse remains outstanding.[19] Cannon spokesman Charles Isom said that Ruse made a payment on the loan in late 1996 and then payments on the interest in 2000 and 2001. According to Cannon's financial disclosure forms, Cannon collected between $200 and $1,000 in interest on Ruse's loan in 2000 and 2001. He did not collect interest in 2002 or 2003 and has not otherwise received interest payments.[20]

Cannon's office stressed that the congressman has made repeated efforts to collect the loan. Cannon's most recent financial disclosure forms show the amount outstanding is still over $50,000.

Lobbying by brother Joe Cannon

Chris Cannon's brother, Joseph Cannon, was chairman of the Utah Republican Party, a former business partner of his brother, and led a team of 10 lobbyists at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, a law and lobbying firm. From late 2006 to 2010, he served as editor of Utah's second-largest daily newspaper, Deseret Morning News (now Deseret News).[21]

Cannon acknowledged helping his brother's clients, pointing out that he had been active on the issue in the past before being approached by his brother. "If my wife decided to lobby, then we would probably say, 'No talking to my office.' I just don't see my brother in the same category," Cannon said.[22]

Cannon has a financial interest in his brother's success: The lobbyist owes him more than $250,000, according to the lawmaker's financial disclosure reports. The debt stems from Joseph Cannon's unsuccessful campaign for the U. S. Senate in 1992.[22] Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan[23] advocacy organization, named Chris Cannon a "member to watch" on its list of "most corrupt" members of Congress for his dealings with his brother.[24]

Obama autobiography

Cannon offered Hertford College, Oxford philosopher Peter Millican $10,000 to prove that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father was ghostwritten by Bill Ayers by using computer analysis to compare that work to Ayers' Fugitive Days. During the 2008 US Presidential election, conservatives attempted to link Obama to Ayers, a former radical leader of the Weather Underground. Regarding the claim that Ayers authored Obama's book, Millican concluded "I feel totally confident that it is false".[25][26]

Electoral history

Utah's 3rd congressional district: Results 1992–2006[27]

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1996		Bill Orton	98,178	47%		Chris Cannon	106,220	51%		Amy L. Lassen	Libertarian	2,341	1%		Gerald Slothower	Unaffiliated	706	<1%	*
1998		(no candidate)				Chris Cannon	100,830	77%		Will Christensen	Independent American	20,720	16%		Kitty K. Burton	Libertarian	9,553	7%	*
2000		Donald Dunn	88,547	37%		Chris Cannon	138,943	59%		Michael J. Lehman	Independent American	5,436	2%		Kitty K. Burton	Libertarian	3,570	2%	*
2002		Nancy Jane Woodside	44,533	29%		Chris Cannon	103,598	67%		Kitty K. Burton	Libertarian	5,511	4%						*
2004		Beau Babka	88,748	33%		Chris Cannon	173,010	63%		Ronald Winfield	Constitution	5,089	2%		Jim Dexter	Libertarian	3,691	1%	*
2006		Christian Burridge	53,330	32%		Chris Cannon	95,455	58%		Jim Noorlander	Constitution	14,533	9%		Philip L. Hallman	Libertarian	2,080	1%

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1992, Nels J'Anthony received 384 votes. In 1996, John Phillip Langford received 270 votes. In 1998, write-ins received 20 votes. In 2000, Natural Law candidate Randall Tolpinrud received 852 votes. In 2002, John William Maurin received 1 vote. In 2004, Curtis Darrell James received 2,390 votes.

References

1. United States Government Manual (1986-1987)
2. United States Government Manual (1985-1986)
3. ksl.com – Chaffetz defeats Cannon in Republican primary
4. Deseret Morning News | Joe Cannon steps down from state GOP post Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
5. Home » Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control Methamphetamine Archived February 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
6. H.R. 2043
7. 2007 House ratings Archived 2008-07-31 at the Wayback Machine from American Conservative Union
8. Tad Walch, "Cannon gets a challenger" Archived 2005-12-10 at the Wayback Machine, Deseret Morning News, October 11, 2005
9. Michael Teitelbau, "UT 3: Immigration, GOP's Thorniest Issue, Takes the Stage in Primary" Archived 2006-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, CQPolitics, June 27, 2006
10. "Utah primary an immigration test case", CNN, June 27, 2006]
11. Charles Hurt, "Utah race closes to virtual dead heat", Washington Times, June 26, 2006
12. travel media shopping computers hardware at burridgeforcongress.com Archived August 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
13. noorlander4congress.com
14. America Votes: CNN 2006 Mid-Term Election Results
15. Republicans: Chaffetz nearly upsets Cannon – Salt Lake Tribune Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
16. Daily Herald – Cannon almost ousted by GOP rival Archived May 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
17. "Cannon Ousted In Republican Primary". CBS News. June 25, 2008.
18. Archived 2012-12-17 at Archive.today
19. Cannon defends loan exposed in Web report Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine, Salt Lake Tribune, January 21, 2006
20. John Byrne, "Congressman made personal loan to bank president shortly before bank extended him $250,000-plus loan", Raw Story, January 18, 2006
21. "New editor named for the News," Dec. 8, 2006, Deseret Morning News
22. Ted Bridis, "Lawmaker Helped Brother's Lobby Clients: Rep. Christopher Cannon of Utah acknowledges helping his brother's lobbying clients", Associated Press, August 17, 2006
23. "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington media kit" Archived 2012-08-03 at Archive.today
24. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2007-10-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
25. Thomas Burr, "Congressman Cannon questions Obama authorship" Archived 2009-05-16 at the Wayback Machine, Salt Lake Tribune, 11/03/2008 (courtesy link to article lede: http://qa.politicswest.com/node/32523/print%5B%5D)
26. Obama book under scrutiny", United Press International, Nov. 2, 2008
27. "Election Statistics". Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Archived from the original on July 25, 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-10.

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Beyond Abramoff: Gambling lobbyist joined with anti-gambling congressman, derailed gambling bills John Byrne, Raw Story, September 1, 2005