Cook making 7th run for office

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    JERRY M. GOWE

    Utah businessman Merrill Cook has run for political office before. Six times, to be exact.

    Hoping that number seven proves to be lucky, he is running for office again. But this time in the Utah 2nd Congressional District race, a contest continuing to draw interest as he and his opponent separate themselves on a variety of current political issues.

    The 1994 race proved to be an exciting struggle as well between first- term Democratic incumbent Karen Sheperd, Republican Enid Greene-Waldholtz and determined Independent candidate Merrill Cook. In the end, Waldholtz convinced Republican voters and won the race.

    With the scandal involving Enid Greene and Joe Waldholtz, and Greene’s decision not to seek re-election, Cook is back in the political spotlight, this time on the Republican ticket, and facing tough opposition from Democratic candidate Ross Anderson.

    “What makes this race so interesting is the difference in personalities of the two candidates,” said Jenni Rasmussen, a political science student focussing on the race.

    Rasmussen said Cook has spent a considerable amount of money in his six past attempts at seeking political office.

    “He has spent over $3 million running for political office. I read that he has spent $750 a day trying to be elected,” Rasmussen said.

    Cook is a native of Utah and earned a bachelors degree in economics from the University of Utah and an MBA from Harvard University. Cook was a business management consultant in Massachusetts before moving to Utah, where he and his father formed Cook Slurry Company, a company that manufactures explosives.

    Anderson is also a native of Utah and is president of the Salt Lake City law firm of Anderson and Karrenberg. He has served as a member of the advisory board for Utahns for Choice and is a former member of the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.

    Anderson has made measurable progress in his fight to close the gap between himself and Cook in the polls. In September, Anderson trailed Cook 50 percent to 28 percent, with 18 percent undecided, according to a Dan Jones and Associates poll. In the latest poll Cook received 45 percent of the vote to Anderson’s 36 percent, with 17 percent undecided.

    Ron Nielson, campaign manager and general consultant for Cook, said the race has some very important issues that have come to the forefront.

    “The candidates have taken different sides. It is pretty clear cut which direction the candidates will take. One issue is capital punishment. Cook is for it, Anderson is against it,” Nielson said. “On the issue of same-sex marriage, Anderson supports it and Merrill Cook is against it. Those are some pretty straightforward issues that are being discussed by the two candidates right now.”

    Nielson said the last few weeks before elections are boiling down to a question of answering those particular issues and seeing which candidate speaks more towards the values of the 2nd Congressional District.

    Steve Harper, campaign manager for Anderson, said the race is finishing in the same manner the Anderson camp predicted it would.

    Harper said Ross Anderson is a citizen candidate with a long background of volunteer work as a citizen with a common cause.

    “Merrill has gone with Dole’s 15 percent tax cut and Ross has said we have to balance the budget first. What we’ve said all along is that as people get to know `Rocky’ (Anderson), this race would come together and be a horse race in the end,” Harper said. “The gap is closing now, so basically it has come down to what people are calling a horse race, a toss-up. That’s what we said all along would happen.”

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