Utah's congressional incumbents look safe in 2006

Polling for the Deseret News finds that Utah's congressional delegation will likely be re-elected in November:

[Rep. Jim] Matheson, a Democrat in a heavily Republican district, holds an overwhelming 64-23 percent lead over his GOP challenger, state Rep. LaVar Christensen, a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV survey finds. [...]

First District Rep. Rob Bishop leads Democrat Steve Olsen 57-23 percent. In the 3rd District, Rep. Chris Cannon leads Democrat Christian Burridge 56-24 percent. [...]

Across Utah, [Sen. Orrin] Hatch leads his Democratic challenger Pete Ashdown 63-21 percent — just about the same numbers by which Matheson leads Christensen.

So does that mean we should give up on Pete Ashdown, Chris Burridge, and Steve Olsen? Not at all. Democrats need to start treating politics as a marathon, not a sprint. This election is an opportunity to get the Democratic message out to Utah voters and introduce them to our great candidates. It's very hard to defeat an incumbent, but once a seat does open up, we'll have experienced candidates with name recognition who are ready to run. Think of the 2006 election as preparing the ground.