Utah's 4th Congressional District elections, 2012
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November 6, 2012 |
June 26, 2012 |
Jim Matheson  |
Newly created district |
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The 4th Congressional District of Utah held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012.
Jim Matheson (D) was elected to the newly drawn district in the general election on November 6, 2012. He defeated Mia Love (R) and Jim Vein (L) for the seat.[1]
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
|---|---|---|
Primary: Utah has a mixed primary system, with Republicans having a closed primary and Democrats having an open one. Both parties hold conventions prior to the primaries.
Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by October 7, 2011 or October 22, 2011 in-person. For the general election, voter registration deadlines were October 7, 2012 and October 22, 2012 in-person.[2]
- See also: Utah elections, 2012
Incumbent: The district was added as a result of the 2010 Census.
This was the first election using district maps based on data from the 2010 Census. Utah's 4th Congressional District is located in the western portion of the state, and includes Salt Lake, Tooele, Juab, Millard, Beaver, Iron, and Washington counties.[3]
Candidates
Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. Click here for more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan. Please contact us about errors in this list.
General election candidates
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Election results
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Jim Matheson Incumbent |
48.8% | 119,803 | |
| Republican | Mia B. Love | 48.5% | 119,035 | |
| Libertarian | Jim L. Vein | 2.6% | 6,439 | |
| Total Votes | 245,277 | |||
| Source: Utah Lieutenant Governor "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election" | ||||
According to the website Daily Kos, this race was one of nine top-ballot 2012 races that contained Libertarian candidates who received more total votes than was the difference between the Democratic winner and the GOP runner-up. In this case, Jim Vein took in over 3,000 more votes than the number that separated Matheson and Love.[6]
Race background
Republican challenger Mia Love was included in the National Republican Congressional Committee's Young Guns program. The program highlighted challengers who represented the GOP's best chances to pick up congressional seats in the general election.[7]
General election
Competitiveness
Utah's 4th was considered to be a Tossup according to the New York Times race ratings. Democratic incumbent Jim Matheson was challenged by Mia Love (R) in the most Republican district in the country occupied by a Democrat.[8]
Using the Federal Election Commission's October Quarterly campaign finance filings, the Brennan Center for Justice at The New York University School of Law published a report on October 22, 2012 focusing on the 25 House races rated most competitive by The Cook Political Report, including the race for Utah's 4th. The report examined the relative spending presence of non-candidate groups, candidates, and small donors in these races - "which will likely determine which party will control the House."[9]
| List of 25 Toss Up Races from the Cook Political Report:[10] | |
|---|---|
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Democratic Toss Ups: Republican Toss Ups: | |
Democratic convention
In the April 21, 2012 Democratic convention, delegates confirmed Jim Matheson as the Democratic nominee for Utah's 4th.[11][12] Matheson was unopposed at the convention. There was no primary for the 3rd District.[12]
Republican convention
In the April 21,, 2012 Republican convention, the party nominated incumbent Mia Love to be the Republican candidate in the general election. Mia Love and Carl Wimmer advanced as the top two vote-getters in the first round, and in the second round, Love received 70 percent of the delegate votes.[13] No Republican primary was held for the 4th Congressional District.[12]
Polls
| Jim Matheson V. Mia Love | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Jim Matheson | Mia Love | Margin of error | Sample size | |||||||||||||||
| Dan Jones and Associates (dead link) (Oct. 26-Nov. 1, 2012) | 38% | 42% | +/-4.8 | 414 | |||||||||||||||
| Mason-Dixon Polling & Research (October 29-31, 2012)*** | 40% | 52% | +/-4 | 625 | |||||||||||||||
| AVERAGES | 39% | 47% | +/-4.4 | 519.5 | |||||||||||||||
| ***Note: After the poll was released, the Salt Lake Tribune announced that the poll revealed a flawed oversampling over Republicans which caused skewed, less accurate results.[14] The polls above may not reflect all polls that were conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org | |||||||||||||||||||
Campaign contributions
The race attracted $2.6 million in satellite spending between Labor Day and late October before the general election. $744,916 was spent helping Democrat Jim Matheson while $1,882,725 was spent to aid Republican Mia Love.[15]
Jim Matheson
| Jim Matheson Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| Pre-Convention[16] | April 1, 2012 | $696,072.78 | $342,736.34 | $(67,261.03) | $971,548.09 | ||||
| July Quarterly[17] | July 15, 2012 | $971,548.09 | $361,959.73 | $(52,676.42) | $1,280,831.40 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $704,696.07 | $(119,937.45) | ||||||||
Mia Love
| Mia Love Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| Pre-Convention[18] | April 20, 2012 | $34,946.89 | $81,816.79 | $(77,588.81) | $39,174.87 | ||||
| July Quarterly[19] | July 13, 2012 | $39,174.87 | $374,870.12 | $(136,864.11) | $277,180.88 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $456,686.91 | $(214,452.92) | ||||||||
Impact of redistricting
- See also: Redistricting in Utah
Utah was redistricted following the 2010 Census and received a fourth Congressional seat.
Because the redistricting split the 2nd District represented by Jim Matheson (D), Matheson declared he would run for the newly created 4th District.[20][4]
District partisanship
FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study
- See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012
In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. Utah's 4th District became less Republican because of redistricting.[21]
- 2012: 39D / 61R
- 2010: 37D / 63R
Cook Political Report's PVI
In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measured each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. Utah's 4th Congressional District had a PVI of R+14, which was the 59th most Republican district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by John McCain (R), 58-42 percent over Barack Obama (D). In 2004, George W. Bush (R) won the district 68-32 percent over John Kerry (D).[22]
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in Utah, 2012
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2012
- United States Senate elections in Utah, 2012
Footnotes
- ↑ Washington Post, "Republican Mia Love concedes to Democrat Jim Matheson in Utah," November 7, 2012
- ↑ Utah Lieutenant Governor, "Voting Registration Deadlines," accessed July 6, 2012
- ↑ Utah Redistricting Map, "Map" accessed July 24, 2012
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Deseret News "Rep. Jim Matheson jumps to 4th Congressional District for re-election," accessed December 16, 2011
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office: Elections "2012 Candidate Filings," accessed March 16, 2012
- ↑ Daily Kos, "Libertarians provided the margin for Democrats and at least nine elections," November 15, 2012
- ↑ NRCC "Young Guns 2012"
- ↑ New York Times, "House Race Ratings," accessed August 10, 2012
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "Election Spending 2012: 25 Toss-Up House Races," October 22, 2012
- ↑ The Cook Political Report, "House: Race Ratings," updated October 18, 2012
- ↑ Utah Democratic Party, "2012 U.S. House candidates," accessed May 27, 2012
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Utah Lt. Gov. Office: Elections, "2012 Candidate Filings," accessed May 27, 2012
- ↑ UtahGOP "Election Results: Utah Congressional District 4," April 21, 2012
- ↑ KUTV "Oversampling Causes Flawed Poll Numbers," November 6, 2012
- ↑ The New York Times, "Outside Spending in Key House Races," October 25, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Matheson for Congress Pre-Convention," accessed July 13, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Matheson for Congress July Quarterly," accessed July 20, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Friends of Mia Love Pre-Convention," accessed July 14, 2012
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "Friends of Mia Love July Quarterly," accessed July 14, 2012
- ↑ Salt Lake Tribune, "Redistricting fallout: Matheson looks at other districts," accessed December 4, 2011
- ↑ "2011 Redistricting and 2012 Elections in Utah," September 2012
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" accessed October 2012
