After a decade in office, everyone in the 3rd Congressional District that sprawls southwestward from Salt Lake County to Beaver County has met the burly, serious Cannon, or at least knows his face.

Jacob, who describes himself as a self-made millionaire, figured it would take heavy television expenditures and hundreds of miles of door knocking to get a fraction of that name recognition.

But all that changed last week, when Jacob, who made hard-edged immigration reform the centerpiece of his campaign, found himself fighting allegations that he had hired undocumented foreign workers.

"Now when they do name-recognition surveys on how many people know who I am, the results will be very different," Jacob joked, trying to live up to his pledge to be "the kind of guy who has to look on both sides of the pancake."

The immigration controversy, which began with rumors that Jacob had paid undocumented workers to clean his house and work at his business, broke in the news media last week.

Jacob says a Chilean couple whom he had helped set up a business were, and continue to be, legal immigrants. The wife wrote a letter last week from Chile supporting Jacob and insisting she and her husband were legal residents.

Still, the controversy continues to swirl, and Jacob admits he doesn't know how it might affect his campaign. Although he maintains he does not believe Cannon was directly involved in spreading the rumors, Jacob says voters might see it as dirty politics.

"The Cannon campaign has been upfront with me, saying they are not behind it," he says. "I believe it will hurt Cannon more than it's helping him."

Political neophyte: Jacob, whose only previous campaign was an unsuccessful City Council run in his hometown of Eagle Mountain, has traveled a winding road to this congressional bid. A Lehi native and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served a mission in Oklahoma in the 1970s, returning to Utah to attend Brigham Young University, where he met and married his wife, Diane.

A stint as a real estate agent in the late 1970s went sour, he says, because of the double-digit interest rates under President Jimmy Carter. "You can't sell many houses at interest rates like that."

Jacob was scraping along as a telephone operator in 1981 when the clash came between Ronald Reagan and air traffic controllers. More than 13,000 controllers walked off the job in defiance of a no-strike clause in their contract. Reagan fired them.

Jacob enrolled in controller school and worked in Oklahoma and finally the Denver area. Jacob insists he was not a scab in taking the job. "They were fired; they weren't coming back," he says.

Ironically, Jacob, who praises Reagan for his hard-line stance against the union, joined the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization.

"I couldn't get any Sundays off because of lack of seniority," he says. "The union helped me, and I believe in putting your money where you mouth is, so I joined."

In fact, the first and only election Jacob has ever won was as the union's facility representative. (He later was appointed to the Eagle Mountain City Council and lost his re-election bid.)

Jacob often turns to his experience as an air traffic controller to establish his ability to handle stress and make tough decisions under fire.

"That stress doesn't affect me," he says. "The more com- plicated it gets, the more I like it. I love solving problems."

The Federal Aviation Administration confirms Jacob was a controller in the Denver area, but he did not work in the tower directing commercial aircraft.

Jacob was stationed in a service center that filed private and business aircraft flight plans and provided weather reports and other services, FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.

He said the distinction makes little different: "He was still an air traffic controller."

In 1985, Jacob quit his controller job and returned to Utah to go into business for himself as a developer.

"It was a desire to improve myself," he says. "With affirmative action, a white male was really not going to go anywhere in [federal government] management," he says.

He describes his success in business: "I made $60,000 a year as a air traffic controller; now my companies have a payroll twice a month for that much."

Though he lacks political experience, Jacob apparently has shaken Cannon's confidence by taking 52 percent of delegate votes at the May Republican State Convention, forcing the five-term congressman into a primary.

Jacob has continued to jab relentlessly at Cannon's weak spot with conservative voters - the incumbent's votes on immigration and support for President Bush's reform plan that many denounce as offering amnesty for undocumented workers. After gigantic pro-immigrant demonstrations in Salt Lake City and around the nation this spring, the issue has become pivotal in Utah, home to upwards of 90,000 undocumented workers.

Jacob's pronouncements calling for strict enforcement of the law against undocumented workers, including deportation, and sanctions against their U.S. employers have energized proponents of an immigration crackdown. Jacob's rhetoric often has been hard-edged against employers, accusing them of greed and blatant exploitation of undocumented foreign workers.

The incumbent hit back, saying the issue, if not Jacob, is fueled by racism and xenophobia.

"That just blows me away," Jacob says in his bland Lehi office decorated only with the ubiquitous-in-Utah County prints of Washington and Lincoln praying on bended knee. "I expect him [Cannon] to be a statesman. To turn around and play the race card just because I support following rule of law - that kind of statement is unacceptable in a congressman."

Alex Segura, a member of the anti-illegal-immigration group Utah Minutemen, says he continues to support Jacob over Cannon, unless real evidence of immigration wrongdoing surfaces against Jacob.

"Jacob may have made some mistakes in the past. I'm out on that right now until we see the final conclusion," Segura says. "He doesn't have a track record, but he speaks about how he would bring law enforcement issues back to immigration."

As for the allegations of racism, Segura says, "This isn't a matter of race; I don't know how many times we have to say it. They start pulling the race card because they don't have a reasonable argument."

Former Congressman Merrill Cook, whom Jacob knocked out of contention for Cannon's seat at the convention, downplays Jacob's lack of understanding of national and international policy issues.

"Any new person running doesn't always know in-depth on some of these issues that Congress is involved in right at the moment," Cook says. "But he's every bit as knowledgeable as Cannon was when he was first running. And Jacob clearly has the ability to learn."

The human side: The allegations of hiring undocumented workers opened a window into Jacob's life. Friends and enemies painted Jacob as a complicated man.

"John is a giving man financially. He is generous," says Mike Bevins, a former officer in his company who told of substantial gifts of property. "On the other side, John is a businessman. Any time he find a way not to pay taxes on a gift, he will."

Glen Sexton, a former employee who calls Jacob "the best friend I ever had," shares a less-positive view. "John is a very giving person, but only if he benefits from that giving."

Those who have worked closely with Jacob say he sees himself as the ultimate deal-maker and a genius at writing contracts. And, they say, that may be what finally will get him into trouble in his helping the Chilean couple.

"I did everything I possibly could to keep within the law," Jacob says of the business he helped the couple set up. "What bothers me is that some innocent, hard-working people could be hurt because of the attention this has attracted."

gwarchol@sltrib.com

John Jacob Age: 54

Family: Wife, Diane; four children: Alisha, Elizabeth, Nathanial and Gretchen

Education: Associate degree, Brigham Young University, in general education; graduated from FAA air-traffic-controller school in Oklahoma

Experience: Appointed to Eagle Mountain City Council; lost re-election bid

Professional: Owns John D. Jacob Cos., which specializes in development, and Makau Corp., which provides computer training; and is a partner in Triwood Inc., which makes wood trim.