This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Rep. Stephen Sandstrom said Sunday he will run against fellow lawmaker Carl Wimmer in the newly minted 4th Congressional District, setting up a showdown between two founding members of the conservative Patrick Henry Caucus.
Sandstrom will formally announce Monday and said he had vacillated between the 2nd and 4th Congressional Districts. His original plan had been to run in the 3rd Congressional District, but that was scuttled when U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, decided not to leave his seat to challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch.
"The 4th Congressional is a much better fit for me," Sandstrom said. "The district is 15 blocks from my house, and it's the area I was born and raised."
Sandstrom said he plans to move so he can live within the district's boundaries.
The Orem Republican said he plans to serve out his term as a state representative unless he finds fundraising tough in the next couple of months. As of the most recent filings, Sandstrom was largely self-funded at about $62,000 while Wimmer had amassed more than $150,000 through about 400 donors.
Wimmer announced he was running for Congress a few months ago, long before the 4th Congressional District was drawn up in the redistricting session in October. Since then, he's been listing endorsements on his website, which include about a dozen state lawmakers, Family Research Council Action and Gun Owners of America.
Wimmer did not return a phone call Sunday seeking comment.
Sandstrom was elected as the Orem representative in 2006 after serving on the Orem City Council. The former airline pilot now runs his own business, Sandstrom Architects, and his campaign manager, Alan Crooks, said the lawmaker would take "a significant pay cut" if he were to win the congressional seat.
"It will be a cut in pay, but it's an opportunity for Stephen to give back," Crooks said.
Crooks said Sandstrom has 30 days to file the required financial-disclosure forms.
Wimmer filed disclosures on Thursday that showed he made a little more than $18,000 in the first 10 months of 2011, although he told TheSalt Lake Tribune that the figure didn't reflect corporate income from his security-consulting firm. With that, he said the family income swelled to about $60,000.
The annual salary of a U.S. House member is $174,000.
Sandstrom largely has been known statewide for shepherding immigration-related bills through the Legislature — the most high-profile of which was HB497. That bill, signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert in March, is tied up in U.S. District Court under challenges brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah and the National Immigration Law Center as unconstitutional.
That bill was born of Arizona's enforcement-only law authored by state Sen. Russell Pearce, who was just recalled by Mesa voters last week. Sandstrom, who is a friend of Pearce, said in recent months that he thought the recalled lawmaker went too far on his immigration policies.
Sandstrom was also hailed by tea party members for lobbying hard against HB116, Utah's guest-worker law signed by Herbert. That law, which would allow the state to issue work visas to undocumented immigrants in Utah after they paid fines and passed background checks, is set to take effect in 2013.
One of the reasons he wants to stay in the Legislature for the upcoming session is he believes he still has work to do — including attempting to get an E-Verify bill passed.
"I've been taking the lead on immigration, and there are still things I want to do," Sandstrom said. "In some respects — and I think that's true with my migrant worker bill — I have shown that I take a more reasonable approach."
That bill was sponsored by Utah County Sen. Curt Bramble on the Senate side and sought to create a partnership between Utah and the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon to bring needed workers to Utah.
Twitter: @davemontero