Angry, and anxious to engage "a new politics," these activists aren't monkeying around.
More than 100 riled-up residents turned the Salt Lake City Main Library auditorium into a grass-roots primary Saturday, selecting 54-year-old pathology professor John Weis as the "Citizens' Candidate" to unseat Blue Dog Rep. Jim Matheson.
The group, whose cause was launched by bogus oil-and-gas-lease bidder Tim DeChristopher's satirical craigslist ad, is nothing if not earnest.
Members argue the conservative Democrat has "sabotaged" the party on climate control, civil rights (including equality for gays and immigration reform), and the "right" to affordable health care.
"Let's do it," Weis announced moments after paper ballots pitched into recyclable grocery bags were counted. "We need to go after Matheson and we need to go after the fact he has turned his back on us as Democrats."
A scientist from Olympus Cove who teaches at the University of Utah Medical School, Weis bested three other would-be upstarts, who also responded on craigslist. His goal is to persuade enough Democratic delegates to anoint him instead of Matheson at the party's May convention.
But the gambit may have unintended consequences. Brigham Young University political scientist Quin Monson says he has never seen a similar campaign succeed. Instead, he predicts the Citizens' Candidate may act as a spoiler, perhaps siphoning enough votes to hand the seat to a more conservative candidate such as Republican Morgan Philpot or Utah House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara.
"It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt," Monson told The Tribune this month. "It becomes, at some point, a self-inflicted wound."
Wryly, Weis insists he has as much chance of winning "as a Republican winning Massachusetts" -- a reference to Scott Brown's stunning Senate victory in the contest for Edward Kennedy's seat.
"He's vulnerable on so many different levels," Weis said about Matheson. "I don't even think he represents middle-of-the-road Democrats."
Jordan Richmond, a volunteer and citizen lobbyist, agrees. Calling the four candidates "courageous," and Saturday's stripped-down nomination "beautiful," she said anybody but Matheson would better represent 2nd District progressives -- even, perhaps, a moderate Republican.
"It will give a certain message to Matheson," Salt Lake City's Naomi Franklin said about the grass-roots revolt. "That's the least it will do."
For two hours, the candidates were questioned on everything from health care to labor to the environment by a panel that included climate expert Brian Moench, civil rights activist Archie Archuleta and Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah.
Weis, a married father of two and avid fly fisher who has run more than a dozen marathons, was the most direct. He called the Supreme Court's recent strike-down of a major portion of McCain-Feingold a joke. "I was aghast at it," he said. He panned oil shale development, saying the country must stop burning fossil fuels "today." And he said multiple military engagements foment anti-Americanism, questioning why President Barack Obama's three-year spending freeze doesn't include the Defense Department. "Why the hell not."
The discussion was briefly interrupted by a man who challenged the four to run as independents, not for a party that regularly abandons progressive principles.
"Why run as Democrats?" the man demanded. "To reclaim our party," DeChristopher shot back.
Despite the passion, several in attendance conceded the Citizens' Candidate's odds are impossibly long.
But if nothing else, the event for one proved a cathartic exercise in citizen democracy.
"I'm here because I feel disempowered and disenfranchised," Salt Lake City's Camille Pouliot told the wannabe politicians. "I'm unemployed. This is, for me, an act of citizenry."
The monkey wrenchers hope Matheson is listening.
