A grassroots group of progressives bent on unseating Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has a new candidate: retired teacher Claudia Wright
Wright accepted the mantle Friday after the candidate chosen by the group last week withdrew unexpectedly.
John Weis, a pathology professor at the University of Utah, said he realized he couldn't campaign across the farflung 2nd Congressional District while keeping up with his job.
"I don't think I had any idea of the magnitude of the commitment it was going to take to mount an effective campaign," Weis said Friday evening. "I came up against the hard reality that I could do two things poorly."
In balloting by the group last weekend, Wright was the runner up to Weis.
She did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Friday night.
The Utah Citizens Initiative began after Tim DeChristopher, the activist who made bogus oil-and-gas lease bids, placed a craigslist ad seeking applicants to challenge the conservative Matheson for the Democratic nomination.
The ad sought candidates with "solid moral values and a resistance to selling out to corporate interests" as well as a "commitment to transparency."
When people began submitting actual applications, a group of progressives got behind the movement and organized last week's primary.
More than 100 Utahns showed up to criticize Matheson for his positions on such issues as climate change, health care, gay rights, immigration reform.
In a news release Friday, Wright said the campaign will be about much more than a single race.
"It is about the need to reclaim our democracy, and the state of Utah is one of the rare places where we really have the potential to make that happen," she said.
Wright is listed on the U. website as an adjunct instructor in the Gender Studies program.
Weis said he is "100 percent behind" Wright, and that she will carry the same message he would have: that Matheson has moved too far from his base.
