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State Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, sponsor of the enforcement-only illegal immigration bill and a leading opponent of the guest-worker permit, has agreed to retain veteran political operative Alan Crooks to run his congressional campaign when, and if, Rep. Jason Chaffetz announces his bid to challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Sources say Sandstrom committed $50,000 to retain Crooks as his campaign manager, although Sandstrom told me they haven't agreed on a price.

Speculation has swirled for some time that Sandstrom, R-Orem, would run for Congress, although news of the retainer puts him that much closer to an announcement, which he said could come soon. While he likely would run in Chaffetz's 3rd Congressional District, another option would be Utah's still-to-be-determined 4th Congressional District.

Crooks ran an unsuccessful congressional campaign for Tim Bridgewater and was involved in the failed campaign for re-election of former Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller.

Perhaps the third candidate will be the charm.

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DUI arrests down • I've had my fun with Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, over his sometimes awkward attempts to show how right he and his legislative colleagues were in budget-cutting decisions that led to the closure of the profitable liquor store on Salt Lake City's Main Street.

But here, I must concede, is a point for the senator.

After the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC) released estimates that the state had lost money because of the closure, Waddoups countered that it didn't matter as long as the closure meant fewer DUIs.

He took some heat for that because of the apparent rationalization. And after the Legislature's own Fiscal Analyst's Office compiled statistics refuting the DABC's study and concluding the state saved money from the closure, Waddoups led an ovation for the analysts that gave him a favorable result. That gave me more ammunition to poke fun at the Senate's honcho.

But I did something I don't think Waddoups bothered to do. After he hinted that public safety might have been better served by the Main Street closure, I checked it out.

The store was closed on March 31. So I submitted a records request with the Salt Lake City Police Department to see if there was a difference in DUI arrests for the three-month period before the store's closure and the three-month period since.

There was.

Of course, there are so many factors to be considered in such a comparison, it is a reach to conclude the store's closure had much to do with it. Waddoups did, however, open that box with his supposition that it might have made us safer.

And I have to admit, if the statistics had shown little or no difference, I would have been all over Waddoups for his bold premise.

So now that the statistics have come down in Waddoups' favor, it's only fair that I point that out as well.

From Jan. 1 to March 31 (when the store closed), there were 351 DUI arrests in Salt Lake City. From April 1 to June 30, there were 205.

So touché, Sen. Waddoups.

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Speaking of liquor • Life in Utah always conjures up little ironies we all can have fun with.

Recently, former Utah DABC Commission Chairman Sam Granato was the featured luncheon speaker for the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City.

He spoke about the challenges of buying liquor in Utah and how Utah has tried to control liquor sales throughout its history.

The luncheon was held in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, named after the first liquor license grantee in Nauvoo, Ill., in 1840.

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Supernatural powers? • Feed the Children, a charitable organization based in Oklahoma City, recently sent a letter to Donna Gibson, of Bountiful, that thanked her for her pledge to send a $5 gift to the charity "to help provide urgently needed food and other essentials to our nation's struggling families."

Her promise, according to the letter, was made "when we spoke on the phone a few weeks ago."

There is only one problem.

Donna Gibson died on Aug. 11, 2009, according to a copy of the death certificate her husband, Rex, sent to me, along with the letter detailing the incredible conversation she recently had with "Feed the Children."

Nice try, guys.

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