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Jason Chaffetz: Newcomer not new to politics
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Candidate
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| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Edited | RBH Jun 25, 2008 12:39am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Sunday, June 15, 2008 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | "Erroneously, people think it's all about name ID and big bucks," said the 41-year-old Alpine resident who made phone calls and knocked on doors for two years to secure his early victory.
But can a candidate who worked so hard to reach a thousand delegates in turn reach tens of thousands of mainstream voters in the primary election? Chaffetz is a former Democratic supporter who has a pair of Ronald Reagan's cuff links, a man who relies on his personality and energy to carry him past obstacles, a man whose campaign "hot line" is his personal cell phone.
To parlay his early success into a primary election victory, he'll need more than money, an army of volunteers and a core of angry voters. He'll need the same ready-or-not approach that landed him a place-kicking gig at BYU and a job as the governor's unlikely, though short-lived, first chief of staff. He'll need to be in the right place at the right time, one more time.
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Where it took dozens of missionaries to complete his religious conversion, it took just one man -- Ronald Reagan -- to complete his political conversion less than a year later. Previously, Chaffetz was not only identified as a Democrat but was co-chairman in 1988 of Dukakis for Utah. Chaffetz's father, John, had married and divorced Kitty Dukakis before she married then Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
Chaffetz worked hard at the campaign, Kauffman said.
"As an 18-year-old kid, I was like, 'You do what?' "
Chaffetz says his time with the Dukakis campaign was more about family connections.
"I was in my late teens," he said. "I wasn't driven by any political issues." |
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