Cannon will seek to keep GOP post
And former U.S. Rep. Enid Greene, current state party vice chairwoman, also will run again for her post, Greene confirmed.
Greene said all of Utah's top GOP officeholders support Cannon's re-election to the top party post in heavily Republican Utah.
"I can say a number of county party chairs and others have asked me to run again, " said Cannon, 55. "They say they like the stability that the party's seen over the past several years."
Cannon has been a member of the Deseret Morning News' board of directors for years, but the directors have no say in the newspaper's editorial policies, says John Hughes, the paper's editor and COO.
Cannon said he expects some fellow Republican will file against him for the chairmanship post. "I've had competitors in my past two elections, as well."
Should the 3,500 state Republican Party delegates give him a third term, Cannon will face a different Democratic state chairman. Donald Dunn has already announced he won't seek re-election to the state's minority party top post.
And several recent GOP state chairman have served two terms.
"I'm willing to do this job for two more years," said Cannon. "But that's it; I absolutely won't run again" in 2007.
Cannon has not taken a salary in his four years as part-time chairman; and Holbrook didn't take a salary when she was state Democratic chairwoman. But Dunn ran on a platform that he would fund-raise to take a salary, reportedly the state Democratic Party has paid him $75,000 a year.
Cannon said he plans to stay active not only in county, state and national GOP politics as chairman, but will continue legal/consulting/lobbying work on environmental issues as well. Some of that work could include lobbying the Utah Legislature, depending on what work he takes on as a private citizen or paid professional.
He is a partner in the international law firm of Pillsbury & Winthrop and regularly travels to Washington, D.C., to lobby on environmental law.
A former legal counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency, Cannon left Washington to return to Utah in the 1980s when he, his brother (now U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah) and a small group of investors bought Geneva Steel in northern Utah County.
Joe Cannon remains chairman of the now-bankrupt-and-closed steel mill. And he said he'll stay on as chairman as a federal bankruptcy court decides Geneva's future. Joe Cannon belongs to a group that wants to turn the huge plant, located on the north-east corner of Utah Lake, into a mixed commercial, residential and light industrial project.
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