Congress' most right-wing Democrat is finally retiringJim Matheson is one of the worst-- if not the worst-- Democrats in Congress. Aside from voting more frequently with the GOP than any other Democrat this past year-- his crucial vote ProgressivePunch score is ghastly 23.13 (tied with fellow Blue Dog John Barrow and worse than 5 conservative Republicans!)-- Matheson was a corrupt insider who traded his votes away to the corporations that financed his sleazy career. The only reason he has been able to hang on is because enough slow-witted Utahans though he was his father, popular and well-respected Utah Governor (1977-'85) Scott Matheson. In the 2010 Democratic Party convention-- which names candidates-- an openly lesbian progressive, Claudia Wright, went after him as too conservative for the district and forced him into a primary. Ultimately Matheon's corporate cash prevailed and he beat her but two years later, a weak Republican candidate Mia Love came within 768 votes of beating him. The final score was 119,803- 119,035 with 6,439 votes going to Libertarian Jim Vein. Matheson spent $2,384,427 and the Republican, Mia Love, spent $2,370,444. The DCCC, the House Majority PAC, a Blue Dog front group and their allies spent $2,322,815 smearing Love. Right-wing outside groups spent $1,117,900 smearing Matheson-- but forgot to tell the dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb voters he wasn't his father. Matheson certainly seemed to be planning on running-- having raised well over $800,000 in campaign cash this year (and already spending $162,330 to defend himself from Love's attacks) but yesterday the 53 year old career politician announced he would be retiring at the end of the term.Matheson never had an easy district for a Democrat. It was R+17 until this past cycle when it became an R+16 district. He has the reddest seat in the country held by a Democrat. Obama only took 41% against McCain and 30% against Mormon Mitt. The district doesn't have Salt Lake City, a Democratic bastion but it does have the wealthy suburbs to the south of the city. Salt Lake County has the bulk of the population of the district and Matheson won 53-44% there, while losing the parts of Utah, Sanpete and Juab counties in the district.It's not likely any of the possible Democratic nominees-- state Rep Brian King (who represents part of Salt Lake City), state Senator Luz Robles (currently in the race against Chris Stewart in UT-02) or Donna Macaleer (a West Point grad currently running against Rob Bishop in UT-01)-- could win. Any of them, though, would be better at helping build a vibrant Democratic Party in the district than Matheson ever did. He confused the whole concept of what a Democrat even was with his GOP-approach to almost every issue. Yesterday the NRCC was crowing that every Democrat who ever supported Obamacare should take Matheson's retirement as a warning. That makes as much sense as almost anything coming out of the Republican Party these days. Matheson tried weakening healthcare legislation all along the process and in the end voted against the Affordable Care Act and then voted with the Republicans over and over and over to repeal it. The warning should be addressed to fake Democrats like Mike McIntyre and John Barrow who have nearly identical records and to the DCCC which is still recruiting conservatives and opportunistic Republicans to run as ConservaDems.In 2010, in their fulsome endorsement of Claudia Wright in the Democratic primary against Matheson, the Salt Lake City Weekly explained why Matheson had worn out his welcome among Utah's hearty brand of Democrats.
Some Utah Democrats living in Rep. Jim Matheson’s congressional district are wringing their hands about what to do come next Tuesday’s primary election. Should they vote for the guy who has, time and again, forsaken them, believing it’s better to have a Democrat in that seat-- any Democrat, even one whom they often despise-- or should they vote for political neophyte Claudia Wright, perhaps risking Utah’s only congressional seat held by a Democrat?I’m not a handwringer on this one. I’m voting for Wright and have three reasons for doing so. First, Matheson abandoned his Salt Lake County base long ago. The only kinship he retains with that crowd are on environmental and land-based issues in Utah, and claiming he is against open-air nuclear testing. Outside of backsliders like Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee-- the Republicans vying for Utah’s open Senate seat-- most are against such nuclear testing. Thanks to Matheson being descended from Utah’s nuclear Downwinders, he’s gotten lots of mileage out of that issue. Every two years it mushrooms up, then blows away. It’s time to put that old Geiger counter down, Jim. We get it. It’s not only your problem; we’re all in this together.Secondly, he’s been a lousy representative. If you voted for Matheson in the past, did you expect that he would thank you by not taking your phone calls? Or not returning your e-mails? Or asking you to talk to him instead via electronic public meetings? Or by talking to the press only when it suited him-- as with the little-boy-in-the-sandbox cold shoulder that he gives to City Weekly?When Holly Mullen was our editor, she began publishing a regular tick of how many weeks had elapsed since Matheson had granted an interview or talked to a City Weekly reporter. It was a number that equated to years of elapsed time since Matheson had spoken to this paper. According to his press aide, we weren’t nice to Jim. Holly’s been gone for over a year, and only this week-- the one just before his most important election date ever-- has he finally been sufficiently scared into answering a couple of questions. So, no thanks, Jim, I’m not voting for a pandering fool such as yourself, and I don’t feel bad about saying so.And third, I’m with the Tea Party on this one-- it’s time to vote the cynical, incumbent scoundrels out of Congress who do less for us than we can do for ourselves. Matheson, for example, cites his allegiance to due diligence and fiscal responsibility when he defends his vote against what is derisively called Obamacare. He says the bill was flawed. All congressional bills are flawed. The real flaw is that he doesn’t mention how much money he reaps from the health-care industry. He can claim fairness all day long, but it just isn’t so.It isn’t fair that the health-care bill is lambasted as socialized medicine when he has a taxpayer-paid health plan that is more socialist than the one he would deny his constituents. What is fair is if Matheson finds himself without health care and without health-industry-support dollars in his pocket. It would also be fair if he would do as some of Americans have done-- shoot himself. That way, he wouldn’t be denied admission to an emergency room where he could then show why he’s really there, to renew a lapsed medication, perhaps. Not to worry-- if he loads a gun the same way he handles his public comments, he’d be firing blanks anyway.Jim Matheson entered office nearly a decade ago upon the backs of tens of thousands of formerly disenfranchised Democrats, their hopes pinned tightly to him. He turned on them. Forget the narcoleptic argument that his district is equally rural, equally Republican and his votes reflect his constituents’ wishes-- he’s been consistent at licking that shoe from Day 1.He’s made his money. He’s made fools of his Democratic supporters. His Republican detractors know he will do it to them, too. He’s not a man of substance; he’s a man of opportunity. His bus left the depot, and, this time, I and many others, aren’t along for the ride. He’s just one long night of empty foreplay-- not only will he never kiss you back, he wants you to pay for the gas that burned in his engine while he let you fool around.I don’t want to fool around, but neither do I want to be fooled again. Claudia Wright can win this primary election and she can win in November. It is indeed time for a change-- not of direction, but of heart.
All that said, Matheson is unlikely to slink off into the oblivion he's earned. Remembering his daddy's old job, he my run for governor. And there is already wide speculation that he plans to tale on Utah's extremely unpopular extremist Tea Party senator, Mike Lee, in 2016. Although there would be no doubt who the lesser of two evils was in this race, both the evils are so evil that I can't see how any progressive could possibly back Matheson… even against a slimy character like Lee.