Conservative Utah Democrat plans to stand his ground

By REBECCA WALSH
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Four years ago on election night, Jim Matheson was a basket case. He won his congressional seat by less than 1 percent.

This year was different. The three-term Democratic congressman beat his Republican challenger by more than 20 points.

Matheson's first landslide victory coincides with a national Democratic wave that swept through Congress. The election results lifted a psychological weight from Matheson; he is no longer squeaking by in a marginally Republican district. But the effect is also practical. Still the lone Democrat from Utah in the U.S. House, but no longer in the minority, Matheson's Washington experience will change dramatically.

"The political landscape has shifted under him," says Kelly Patterson, director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

Karen Shepherd, the last 2nd District Democratic representative to work in the majority, says: "Jim's going to experience a profound sense of change and potency. It's the difference between being virtually an observer and being a player. It's indescribable."

Being a member of the ruling party affords Matheson the chance to finally have his bills heard _ including legislation to require congressional approval of future nuclear-weapons testing, extending the GI bill's education benefits to National Guard members, designating parts of Washington County as wilderness while selling off other public lands, and requiring age-verification for violent video games and Internet pornography.

Matheson and the Blue Dog and Western moderates who gave the Democrats their majority will likely shape the agenda of the next Congress.

Republicans had warned that under the Democrats, this would be the "cut and run" Congress determined to impeach the president and lift restrictions on abortion and same-sex marriage. Instead, Matheson says, this will be the Congress of accountability. He expects the Democrats to reinstate so-called "pay as you go" budgeting rules Republicans set aside five years ago. Matheson believes Congress will resume its oversight role of the executive branch. And he expects the Democrats to get to the bottom of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's problems.

He says he will be the same conservative Utah Democrat he has been.

"There's no extra pressure at all," he said. "Everybody knows that I do what I think is right for my district."