Who is Chris Cannon, and Who am I?

Chris Cannon was born in Salt Lake City 48 years ago (this is 1998, in case you were wondering). He got his law degree from Brigham Young University, and for four years he actually pretended to be working for a living as a lawyer. In fact, he is, along with his brother Joe, one of the liege lords of Utah Valley. As part owner of Geneva Steel, he can tell the State of Utah to jump, and all except maybe His Eminence, Brother Mike Leavitt will pull a forelock and ask, "How high?"

In a state already known for large families, Chris Cannon has done his part by raising a family of seven children in one of Utah County's many bedroom communities, Mapleton.

Chris Cannon made his first mark in the world of politics when President Reagan appointed him to work for the Department of the Interior, run at the time by the infamous James "Watt, me worry?" Watt. Under Watt Cannon helped abet the Reagan administration's efforts to weaken federal environmental regulations by moving oversight of strip mining reclamation out from under the Department of the Interior.

Since that auspicious beginning, Chris Cannon has mostly been the office boy for various Republican Party functions, serving as Finance Chairman for this campaign or that party office. But then his big brother Joe (who is busy these days fleecing Utah taxpayers in his post as member of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee) lost the race for Governor to Brother Mike Leavitt, and Chris suddenly gained a taste of the game of power.

Making humongous loans from his personal fortune to his election campaign, he outspent Representative Bill Orton by a margin of four to one, and bought himself a seat in the US House of Representatives.

Fine, so who am I?