Demo Matheson is committed to serving Utah

HEBER CITY — Scott Matheson Jr. recently made one of his favorite stops on the campaign trail, a visit to a high school where most of his audience is too young to vote.

"It's something I really enjoy doing," the Democratic candidate for governor said after spending almost an hour answering questions from Wasatch High School students about his position on everything from gay marriage to gun control.

"It's great to get into schools with students and help raise awareness about political issues and try to encourage more involvement," he said. "I think it's one of the responsibilities of being a candidate."

The quality of the questions from the 200 or so government and social studies students gathered in the school's auditorium impressed the University of Utah law school dean, who has pledged to make education his top priority if he's elected in November.

"They ask the broadest variety of questions and the most direct questions," Matheson said of the high school students he's addressed during his campaign. "The questions show they are following the issues."

Matheson's own involvement in politics began at a young age, even though this is his first bid for public office. Nearly three decades ago, the now-51-year-old candidate worked for the late U.S. Rep. Wayne Owens, the Democratic congressman from Utah, during the Watergate hearings in Congress.

But most Utahns know him as the son of the late Gov. Scott Matheson, the last Democrat to hold the state's highest office. What they may not realize is that the junior Matheson was still a college student when he ran both of his father's successful campaigns for governor.

He was a Rhodes Scholar who earned an advanced degree in modern history from England's Oxford University. Matheson also has a degree in economics from Stanford University and a law degree from Yale Law School.

One of his closest friends, Michael Sandel, a fellow Rhodes Scholar who is now a Harvard professor of government, recalled being struck by Matheson's "enormous integrity and brilliance combined with modesty" when they met aboard a ship bound for England.

"That last quality was not in great abundance among the Rhodes Scholar group," Sandel said. But Matheson, he said, "was someone who wrestled in earnest with what is the right thing to do where political questions are concerned."

Much of what the elite group of scholars talked about back in 1975 revolved around the Watergate scandal that cost Richard Nixon the presidency. "It raised the question of what are the ethical and moral requirements of public figures," Sandel said.

Even then, Sandel said, Matheson seemed to be a likely candidate for office someday.

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