Friday round-up

Quote of the Day: "There's definitely an anti-incumbent feeling and I absolutely agree with it," says Roy Chapman, a [Utah Republican State Convention] delegate from Tooele. "The White House, the Senate and the House are Republican-controlled. And yet our country is in a mess. We have to blame the people who are in there." --SL Trib, on Rep. Cannon's chances in the convention. How come is he endangered? He had the audacity to say this: "We love immigrants in Utah. We don't make distinctions between legal and illegal."

That's right, Cannon faces a $1M self-funder who is anti-immigrant, and ex-Rep. Cook, who seeks a more moderate approach to immigration reform (penalize the companies). Remember, if Cannont can't get 65% of the delegates, there is a primary between the top two. Who will it be? If it was based on money, it would be Jacob and Cannon:

Jacob is basically self-funding his race; all but $8,112 of his $253,112 comes from the candidate. Jacob has spent $246,500 on the race up to the convention. He has $6,500 in cash but clearly can write checks himself if he gets into a primary.
Cook, meanwhile, is not spending much on the convention race.
Cook, who has spent more than $3 million on his own races and causes over the years, has given his campaign just $5,000. Other Cook family members have contributed, also. And the anti-illegal immigrant PAC, Team America, gave Cook $5,000, for a total raised of only $27,035, Federal Election Commission reports show.
Meanwhile, Cannon, who historically doesn't raise nor spend much money on his re-elections, has gone all out this year. He's raised more than $462,000 and spent $465,000 since his 2004 re-election.
Should Cannon be forced into a six-week primary battle with either Cook or Jacob, the incumbent has only $27,737 in cash to start that primary campaign. Cannon has loaned his campaign about $18,000, records show.

The amount Cannon has spent and raised, along with that quote above from our Tooele [pronounced Tool-will-ah for those of you not from the Beehive State] gives Democrats great hope for retaking the House (and maybe the Senate) this year.

Speaking of the U.S. Senate, there is a primary challenger to Orin Hatch (which happens routinely because Hatch is far too "liberal" for some delegates), Mike Ridgeway. But get this, the guy is so nuts appearantly that a Judge gave a restraining order against Ridgeway.

An anti-stalking injunction against candidate Mike Ridgway has been issued... It orders Ridgway to stay away from Republican Party activist Mark Towner and members of his family.
Towner lost his bid for the party's nomination to a state Senate seat after Ridgway distributed an anti-Towner letter among delegates of Senate District 2 at the Salt Lake County convention.
Ridgway reportedly then had confrontations with Towner and members of his family, which provoked Towner to seek an injunction ... since 2002, Ridgway has confronted either him or his wife at least 15 times...
The injunction orders Ridgway to stay away from areas where the Towners frequent, including their home, their work, the University of Utah and Republican events.
That means Ridgway, who has been involved in several confrontational incidents this campaign season and has been escorted out of his own precinct caucus by a security guard, might be in violation of the court order if he attends the convention on Saturday.

Talk about an incumbent protection program! [ba-doom-ching] Thank you I will be here all week.