Jim Matheson, D-Utah. She needs delegate votes to get 40 percent, votes to get 60 percent. Matheson won't rule out a primary fight. But he says flatly that Wright won't get 60 percent of the Democratic delegate vote — he won't be eliminated in the convention. Matheson has never faced a convention challenge. He's never been in a primary. Whatever the convention outcome, it's clear that Matheson, 50, is feeling unprecedented opposition among his own party's loyalists.
She said as Utah's Republican Party moves even further to the right, independents who used to vote Republican, and even moderate Republicans, are becoming involved in Democratic politics. Wright, 61, is a retired school teacher of 31 years who still teaches a few college-level courses on women's issues and gender studies. She describes herself as a "lesbian, open about it" who lives with her partner on Salt Lake County's east side.
Matheson said Wright's sexual orientation is not an issue in the intra-party race. The Deseret News is the first to ask about it, he added. But, Matheson adds, he is probably the only Democrat who can win the 2nd District in , mainly because he's built up trust and relationships with "all kinds of folks" inside and outside of Salt Lake County — Democrats, Republicans and independents.
But Matheson has let down Democrats and progressives in any number of ways, Wright says. In fact, it was that dissatisfaction that led public lands protester Tim DeChristopher and others to set up a Craigslist website aimed at finding a Democratic challenger to Matheson. Wright says she responded to that listing and found herself in January at a meeting where she and 19 other possible Democratic candidates were deciding among themselves, and others in attendance, who should file against Matheson.
Another Democrat was picked, but when he soon dropped out, Wright was chosen. If delegates put Wright into a primary, it will make modern Utah political history. Todd Taylor, longtime executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, says he can't remember when an incumbent Democratic congressman was forced into a party primary. But he believes Wright "is not accurate" when she says she'll make a primary. There's some irony in Wright's challenge.
