Can A Real Democrat-- Not A Jim Matheson Republican-Lite Thing-- Win In Utah?

Chris Stewart's Utah congressional district-- the 2nd-- is gigantic, basically most of the western part of the state and almost half the southern part of the state. But most of the population is in the far northeast corner of the district, the northern part of Salt Lake City, the city's western suburbs and West Valley. That part of the congressional district is also Utah's 1st senatorial district, a nice blue bastion that includes Rose Park, Glendale and Poplar Grove. The state Senator there, Luz Robles, beat a Democratic incumbent at the party convention in 2008 and then went on to defeat Salt Lake City Councilman Carlton Christensen (R) in the general election. She just announced she's running against Stewart, a conservative Republican freshman.

Her senate district is very Democratic but the whole congressional district... well Obama only scored 38% against McCain in 2008 and got wiped out by Mormon Mitt Romney 29-68% last year. At the same time, Stewart beat Democrat Jay Seegmiller 62-34%, winning every county but one-- Salt Lake, where Seegmiller beat him 44,559 (59%) to 27,129 (36%). It's the only really populous county in the district other than very red Davis (Farmington, Bountiful) and very evolving Washington (St. George) counties, but Republicans feel certain they've drawn the boundaries carefully enough to overcome the Salt Lake voters and guarantee Republican wins there.

One friend of mine in the district told me that Stewart is so embarrassingly extreme that he makes Mike Lee look almost sane on some issues! Stewart's ProgressivePunch crucial vote score is less than a 2.0-- and lower than any other Member of the Utah delegation. In way of contrast Stewart's 1.92 makes conservatives Rob Bishop (7.84), Jim Matheson (25.96) and Jason Chaffetz (13.46) look like out-and-out Marxists. He's actually managed to rack up 0.00 on some of the most important issues facing Utah and the country-- the environment, aid to less advantaged people, education, fair taxation, health care, human rights, labor rights and, of course, war and peace. Stewart isn't a legislator; he's a crackpot. You know how people talk about what a joke it is that Boehner dumps anti-science kooks on the House Science Committee? Stewart is one of those. An anti environment-sociopath, they thought it would be funny to put him on the Subcommittee on Environment. More laughs than a barrel of monkeys-- with him voting against clean water and water conservation and, of course, against ameliorating Global Warming.

And Senator Robles? She's not a Jim Matheson kind of "Democrat." Her record shows she's a real progressive and my friends in Utah are all very enthusiastic about her. She's the Mormon daughter of two Mexican college professors and her candidacy fits nicely into the Democratic Party's efforts to register thousands of Hispanic voters, especially in Washington County. Watch how she handles Fox News anti-Hispanic wingnut Greta Van Susteren: