Voters who give money to candidates generally vote for them. Out of state contributors and PAC money doesn't always compute to votes, as in the case of Cannon's election.

The people who donated time and money to Chaffetz campaign also voted for him!

I agree! You get 'buy in', they become YOUR candidate and you go out of your way to make sure you vote for them. I've never donated to a PAC and I don't know if I would track who they donate to, but I did donate to Jason's campaign and followed it closely!

It is easier to unseat someone in a primary election vs. a general election, however, I'm a Republican from Utah County who is going to vote for a Democrat mostly because of frustration over the school voucher issue, the education omnibus bill, and it's unresponsiveness to the majority of voters. I feel like they are trying to tell the voters what to do rather than doing their jobs as "representatives." I'm not the only Republican that is not going to vote for a Republican this general election. There are many of us, I just hope we will be enough to make a difference to weed out this corruption that has been going on for far too long.

In the talk about small donations and supporters. you left out Ron Paul. He had amazing numbers of small donations and ardent supporters all over the country. If you have ever met any of them, they are very committed to their cause. His support was small but very deep. Their "money bombs" were huge. But he did not win any races except his Congressional seat so far.

I believe that Romney got lots of little donations also (he did from me), and he got the most votes of any politician in any race I can remember, unless there were no opponents at all. Small donations & large commitment can equal huge success.

Chaffetz was perhaps one of the first to show us how it can work here in Utah. Hopefully there can be more. I have always resented that big money equals big success in politics. It is refreshing and hopeful to have it go another direction.

In spite of the problems with the caucus/convention system, it still preserves the possibility that someone with little money and lots of hard work can be President (not quite, but Congressman or Utah House or Senate member?)

For decades people have given money to charities ranging from their churches to the Boy Scouts to food for Africa. In America, giving money to charity is almost considered a moral obligation. But giving to a political campaign is considered by some almost the equivalent of blowing it at the local strip club.

But the point is that democracy needs money to function. Politician, moral or immoral, need money to take their campaigns to the people who don't pay much attention. And if you're not giving, WHO IS? I'll tell you who: the vested interests; the businesses looking for favors here and there; the purely corrupt.

Average citizens need to treat supporting their candidates (ESPECIALLY CHALLENGERS) as much a part of their charitable obligation as giving to their church or children's school. If democracy fails - or goes to the greedy - we all suffer.

Even if you're a Republican, losing several seats to the Democrats won't necessarily be a bad thing. I lived in Colorado for years, a state where control of the legislature is always up in the air, and the legislators seem to be more attuned to listening to the voters. The Democratic-controlled legislature actually passed a fairly tough immigration enforcement bill a few years ago because they wanted to ensure they kept control of the legislature after the election. Lopsided legislative control (and elections) tends to make them lazy and rude.

The premise that the number of donors predicts election outcomes is complete nonsense in at least the context of Utah County elections. The radical positions taken by the Democratic Party as a whole, are so far out of step with the traditional values that are subscribed to by the vast majority of Utah County voters, that if every registered Democrat in the county made the maximum contribution to every candidate, that they would never overcome this huge negative factor. Until the national party gets off the radical rolercoaster, Utah County will continue to be a one-party county.

I would hardly call Utah County Republicans "Mainstream Americans." I've been a Republican all my life and have lived in different states, and Utah County Republicans are so far to the extreme radical right that they have lost sight of basic democratic rule and remind me of many of the national Democrats in their quest to hang on to power at all costs. When incumbent Republicans unfairly dip into the Republican party election funds to defeat other Republican challengers within the party besides having an increasingly corrupt caucus system, they have in effect become nothing more than money-grubbing, power-hungry rulers. That certainly doesn't fit within my book of "democratic" (not the party in case you can't tell the difference) values. We might as well elect Robert Mugabe if we want those kinds of people.

From Salt Lake City, Sadie and Pyper Vance have had just about enough of high gas prices. You mothers, well, and you fathers will like this story. Sadie and Pyper Vance are nine and seven years old, and they're fed up with gas prices. You might be asking yourself, "Well, why? They don't drive. They don't go to the gas station to fill up." Well, the reason is that the family budget has had to be cut because of rising gasoline prices with the price now over four dollars a gallon, and mom and dad said, "Okay, cable TV is gone. We're getting rid of cable TV so we can keep driving around like we need to." Cable TV, the family's budget-cutting casualty, one of them, is leading Sadie and her seven-year-old sister Pyper without their favorite cartoons and shows. So these little girls just said the gas prices are too high. Sadie said, "Gas prices are too high. I just decided to come and protest so they'd go down." So they marched through downtown Salt Lake City on Monday, chanting and carrying signs made from old campaign signs

It's all Obama's fault here folks.