Battle's uphill for Woodside
By Jeffrey P. Haney
Deseret News staff writer
PROVO — Nancy Jane Woodside is apoplectic, digging bejeweled fingers into a curly blond mop, eyes clearly registering an escalating frustration.
Woodside, a former Ford factory worker who earned a law degree and now owns a mediation firm, had just received word that her political opponent had backed out of a TV appearance that was scheduled for today.
"He doesn't want to come out," Woodside said, her Boston accent punctuating her words. "And why would he? He has the lead, he's a Republican in an all-Republican county in a Republican state. He doesn't have to participate."
Woodside, fighting to raise her profile on a bare-bones budget, is furious with U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, whom she is challenging in the 3rd Congressional District campaign.
Cannon defeated Democrat Bill Orton in 1996. And political-scene watchers say that was the last race in which Cannon was forced to mount an extensive, expensive campaign. Since his first win, Cannon, the wealthiest member of Utah's congressional delegation with a net worth between $6.53 million and $28.79 million, has enjoyed incumbency in a district that is known for its widespread conservative leanings.
"Well, (Cannon) has stopped calling me Mary Jane," said Woodside, who is credited with reviving a dormant Democratic Party in Utah County. "So I guess I'm making some progress."
Scott Wares, Cannon's campaign manager, said Cannon is definitely not ducking Rod Decker's KUTV political show because he's scared to face Woodside.
Cannon must return to Washington, D.C., to vote on proposed bills early Monday morning, said Wares, whose boss will return to campaign full-force after Congress ends mid-October. It's not likely that Cannon will need to busily pound the pavement and press flesh, however. He leads by 38 percentage points, according to a recent Deseret News/KSL poll.
In 1998, Cannon, a House manager of President Clinton's impeachment trial, ran unopposed. Two years later, riding on George W. Bush's popularity in Utah, Cannon coasted to victory over Donald Dunn, a former aide in the Clinton White House.
"Am I tilting at windmills? Yeah, well, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to say?" asked Woodside, who has campaigned at fairs, parades, rodeos and union halls.
"I'm doing it the way its supposed to be done. I'm talking — going out and talking to people," she said. "It either gets the job done or it doesn't."
Woodside, a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association and one who says the LDS Church's stance on abortion is "progressive under current law," has not raised a lot of money, which basically killed her chances of receiving financial support from state and national Democratic organizations.
"It's always 'Show me $100,000 and a poll that says you can win' and they'll pay attention," says a frustrated Woodside, whose campaign staffers are all volunteers.
According to her first filing of campaign donations and expenditures this summer, Woodside was in the hole $2,450. She had raised $2,985 and spent $5,485.
Woodside said she's received about $30,000 in cash and in-kind donations throughout the summer and fall. According to the donation reports, most of the cash was given by unions. She's pared the campaign down to "the nuts and bolts."
At this stage, she's not planning to produce any full-color brochures ("They just get thrown away") or television spots ("I don't think it's as effective as radio"). Twenty four billboards — all designed by a volunteer — are going up this week. Some 1,500 signs are out, 500 arrived Tuesday and another 500 are being shipped to her office.
To spread her message, she'll spend as much time as she can wherever there's a crowd: college campuses, union halls and senior centers. And even West Jordan PTA meetings.
After all, she says, isn't this a representative democracy? Aren't the people supposed to meet the candidates for office? Or, she asks rhetorically, is representative democracy a fantasy? Has it come to the point that blue-collar folks without millions of dollars don't stand a chance because they can't afford slick, glossy campaigns and professional handlers?
"If it's a full-time job for millionaires," she said, "then so be it." Woodside then pauses, regains her optimism and says: "Who knows. I might win. Stranger things have happened."
Courtesy of Deseret News
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,410017487,00.html
