UT-02: Four, Maybe a Fifth Candidate?

Jim Matheson is facing some competition next year.

I talked about Dave Glissmeyer last week.

Now, we have Ryan Kelly running as an independent as well. From his Web Site:

We the people have a duty to our country to defend our liberty and our right to choose what is best for ourselves. This is why I seek to be elected to our Federal government. I feel that few in our government now are willing to defend our rights as they should. They have stopped listening to us, and rather than use our power to vote to remove these people from office, almost half of us stay at home and let them do things for us. America needs a Congress that remembers they are chosen by the people to represent them to the rest of the nation. America needs people who remember that when government fails in its duty to represent the will of the people, we must use the power of the vote to replace those elected with people who will do as we ask them.

And, on the Republican side, Casey Anderson has been running for several months now. From his web site:

Two years ago - after seeing the national debt nearly double in only two terms, the continued foreign policy of entangling alliances and interventionist foreign policy, as well as the continued erosion of civil liberties at home, Casey decided it was time to get active in politics before it was too late. He was elected by his neighbors to be a County Delegate and State Delegate for the Utah Republican party and more recently he was elected to represent his county as a member of the State Central Committee, which is the primary governing body of the state party. He is currently working to get liberty-minded individuals elected in various offices throughout the state.

And Joe over at Sausage Grinder posted this morning that former Republican legislator Morgan Philpot is considering a run as well.

Things are getting interesting.....

-Bob

Challenger #1 for Matheson

Tribune:

Dave Glissmeyer, a reform-minded independent with homes in Salt Lake City and St. George, has filed to run against Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson for Utah's 2nd Congressional seat.

"People do a lot of complaining about government doing too much or not enough," Glissmeyer told The Salt Lake Tribune Wednesday. "But the problem seems to be that there's a great unserved mass in the middle that doesn't want to follow a particular label."

"Party politics can take you down a road that may not make the best sense," said the 57-year-old retired businessman.

In 1984 Glissmeyer launched ProTel NetWorks, a Utah business still in operation. He vows to fuel his campaign from individual donations only and has committed $25,000 of his own cash to seed the effort.

Glissmeyer supports ethics reform, citing history as proof that "elected officials cannot be trusted to regulate or police themselves."

He also pledges to scrutinize the so-called war on drugs for better ways to "quell the violence and crime" that stem from illegal narcotics.

He also believes in a balanced budget and that America's two wars should end in a quick and orderly fashion.

In addition, he recommends fining employers who hire undocumented immigrants, and shutting down low-priority military bases to redirect tax dollars to secure the country's Southern border.

Glissmeyer is the first to enter the race against Matheson, a centrist Democrat who enjoys high approval ratings in a sprawling, largely Republican district.