How the hell did this guy survive for so long?

[Meeker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Orton

It says he won the open seat in UT-03 1990 by 22 points and then held it by 19 points in 1994?

What was so great about this guy?

[Invisible Obama]

It has to just be chalked up to likability, there doesn't seem to be any other reason why he was able to win this seat three times. Utah's delegation was 2-1 Dem for two cycles and Jim Hansen dropped down to 52% in his district in 1990. Not sure what was going on with Utah at the time.

[Nym90]

But then he lost in 1996. Yeah, definitely odd, I would assume his challenger in 1994 was simply unknown and unfunded?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

A little research on the '94 election (luckily, the Deseret News has its archives from back then online):

Orton's opponent was Dixie Thompson, who won the primary by 184 votes (her primary opponent appears to be a conservative talk show host now). One article refers to her campaign as "cash-strapped". The only bit of information I've been able to find out about her is she was an Emery County Commissioner (pop. 10,332 in 1990). For some reason, she didn't seek out the endorsement of Mike Leavitt, who was extremely popular at the time.

It sounds like she was like Morgan Philpot, a long-shot candidate with little money in the bank.

[Former Moderate]

Some insight from Utahpolicy.com:


http://www.utahpolicy.com/featured_article/news-analysis-do-negative-ads-work-utah-elections

1990:

Anyway, right before the general election, a Snow campaign worker took out an ad in a Utah County publication that had two pictures: One of Orton by himself, the other with Snow surrounded by his extended family. The caption said something like here is Bill Orton’s family, here is Karl Snow’s.

A lot of people were outraged – for it basically said one shouldn’t be elected to the U.S. House unless you had a large, LDS family. It subliminally suggested that Orton may not be living the life that a good Mormon young man should be living.

1996:

He held the very Republican seat until 1996, when then-Democratic President Bill Clinton, seeking environmental votes, declared a large part of the 3rd District a national monument, sinking Orton’s re-election bid.

[Landslide Lyndon]

1996:

He held the very Republican seat until 1996, when then-Democratic President Bill Clinton, seeking environmental votes, declared a large part of the 3rd District a national monument, sinking Orton’s re-election bid.

Not exactly on topic, but actions like that was a big reason why Democrats in red states backed so heavily Obama's candidacy in 2008.

[Badger]

That and from what I remember about the guy he was (unsurprisingly) quite conservative. Moderate to liberal by Utah standards, but otherwise quite conservative (staunchly pro-life, etc).

Looks like from the Wiki article and our own Atlas map, he ran a better than respectable campaign for governor in 2000, losing 56-42 to the incumbent. Sad to see he died 2 years ago in an ATV accident.

[realisticidealist]

Out of curiousity, why does making an area a national momument inspire local hatred?

[Smash255]

Out of curiousity, why does making an area a national momument inspire local hatred?

Depends on the area, if its in an area that generally doesn't believe in things like the environment its not going to be popular.

[Badger]

Exactly. It took some proposed coal and other mining development in the region off the table. Probably a good decision in 15 years hindsight, but political death for Orton at the time.

[cinyc]

Out of curiousity, why does making an area a national momument inspire local hatred?

Westerners don't like how the federal government owns so much land in their states, making decisions on local land use from 2000 miles away.   Declaring an area a national monument puts development off limits.  And development in the rural west often means mineral or timber extraction jobs for an area that has little else in the way of jobs.  Putting federal land off limits to development hurts the economy, at least in the short run.

[pbrower2a]

Out of curiousity, why does making an area a national momument inspire local hatred?

Westerners don't like how the federal government owns so much land in their states, making decisions on local land use from 2000 miles away.   Declaring an area a national monument puts development off limits.  And development in the rural west often means mineral or timber extraction jobs for an area that has little else in the way of jobs.  Putting federal land off limits to development hurts the economy, at least in the short run.

Of course, the people who work the lumber or minerals have usually been Democrats. But on the other side -- workers in the tourist trade tend to be Democrats, too.

[Sibboleth]

What cinyc said. Land use issues are one of the main reasons for the collapse of the traditional Democratic vote in much of the interior West.

[The Mikado]

Out of curiousity, why does making an area a national momument inspire local hatred?

Said before, but put plainly, if it's a national monument you can't tear it to shreds for the coal/gas/lumber/water/whatever in it.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

I am apparently now roommates with his son out here back east and we were just reading this thread. According to him, everything here is accurate, his family even kept a copy of the Snow ad for prosperity.

(Yeah, this is necro-ing, but I thought it was pretty cool. )

[Vasall des Midas]

It is. -_-

[Mr.Phips]

I dont get how Orton even won the district in the first place.  He raised almost no money in 1990 and was behind Snow by double digits in the polls right up until the end, yet he won by 23 points.