Connected
Utah Governor Norm Bangerter (R) 1985 - 1993
He came from a family of poor farmers - the 10th of 11 children.
"As a young kid I got picked on quite a bit but by the time I got to high school I was class president. I was active in sports and I was competitive.
"I thought I'd lost my first election, Republicans were losing everything and when I turned off the television that night, I thought I'd lost."
That was in 1974 and Bangerter was a 41-year-old Republican state house candidate, running in a traditionally Democratic district while Republican President Richard Nixon was resigning his office. By morning he discovered that he had won the seat, the only Utah Republican that year to unseat a Democrat.
His ascendancy to the Governor's office, by his campaign manager's account, wasn't the culmination of any grand scheme. It was the natural progression of the state's great leader.
"Norm is one of my favorite people ever. The last of an era, He's common sensical, he can read people better than anyone I've ever known. This isn't a guy who came to the legislature with the life's plan of being governor," recalled Doug Foxley.
Bangerter had left college a few hours shy of a degree. Raised in the Mormon Church he keeps his faith close to his vest.
"I was 28 and they called me to be a Mormon Bishop and I spent the next 18 years as Bishop and Stake President, all volunteer no pay," he said. "I never stated in a brochure or anything else publicly, that I was a Mormon, I don't believe you do that. People would say, 'does the church influence you?' and I'd say 'no, they have their responsibilities and I have mine.'"
He started as a builder and evolved into a developer. Soon he was organizing other builders to create large housing developments for the Salt Lake Valley's booming population.
"I've always had my own business, always been my own boss. I was nearing what I figured was the end of my terms as Bishop and I was interested in politics. I had been a delegate to state and county conventions. In 74 I sat down with my wife and said, 'well, maybe we'll run for the legislature.' During my second year I got involved in leadership. A freshman legislator in my class ran and lost and she said, 'if you'da run, you'da won.'"
The Governor credits some of his political success to the people skills he honed in business. In his first run for leadership in the Utah House of Representatives he beat his challenger handily.
"I had a lot of experience dealing with people," he recalled, "I helped organize six builders into creating a development company. The rest of that term, I was the guy who stepped in."
And others stepped aside. In his third term as a Representative he was elected Speaker of the House.
"I served two terms as Speaker, nobody had done that for 40 years but I had no opposition," he said.
He climbed into leadership roles easily and with confidence. Foxley describes him as a natural leader:
"There's an aura about him. It's soothing, it's comforting. If he's sitting in the room and something tough comes along, you look to him, 'well Norm, what are we going to do?'"
His years in the State House won the confidence of fellow legislators, along with county commissioners and mayors. During his first term as Speaker of the House, people began to talk about running him for Governor.
"People don't get drafted for jobs like that, you have to go after it," the Governor insisted.
The incumbent Governor, a Democrat, was expected to run again.
"The 800-pound gorilla was Scott Matheson. Had he run, he would have been extremely formidable. In 1980 he withstood the Reagan landslide - Norm decided if he was going to do this he would do so before Matheson's announcement," Foxley recalled.
Matheson didn't run but Republican Congressman Dan Marriott had his sights set on the office. Marriott was the early favorite and made fundraising for Bangerter impossible.
"I couldn't raise any money. Everybody wanted to see the polls first and Dan Marriott, a four-term Congressman, was way ahead so we put our money into finding delegates. We went everywhere and I spent a year doing it. I didn't announce until after the legislative session in February. The minute it was over we announced. There was another guy in the legislature who was going to run and I knew he'd announce after the session but I didn't want to wait - I didn't want to be perceived as being afraid of him," the Governor said.
The race was going to be a heated one. Along with Marriott, Brigham Young professor Karl Snow, State Party Chairman Bob Wright (who had nearly won the 1980 election) and political gadfly Laura Ferguson all threw their hats into the ring.
"The Salt Lake money group, they all rallied behind Dan Marriott," Foxley recalled, "he was the establishment candidate. Utah has this unique caucus convention system, so we sat down and decided a couple of things…"
Bangerter met with all of his colleagues in the House and won their endorsements.
"Of a 75-member house we had over 50 Republicans and all but three were supporting me. In the Senate there were 21 senators and I had half of them signed up," Bangerter recalled.
"This group was our base," Foxley explained, "so we'd have enough support at the convention. Our whole game plan was to leverage our relationship with the legislature, who loved and revered Norm and would invite people to their homes to listen to him speak. We thought we were going to win but we had to run three serious races: a convention race, a primary race and the general election race. We came out number one in the convention in June."
"Foxley will tell you I used to call him every night at 11 o'clock and say, 'am I winning or should I quit now?" the Governor chuckled, "Dan Jones (Deseret News) came out with his poll. It showed I was going to get 42 percent of the vote at the convention. Marriott was at 28, Snow was down around 20. As we got closer everyone of them came to me and said, 'well we're going to have a primary.' I had a phone bank set up and every night we would dial delegates and I traveled the whole state."
The Governor recalled a conversation with his primary opponent before anyone had announced.
"Marriott called me in November of 83 and said, 'I'm gonna run for Governor and I'm gonna announce tomorrow and you ought to run for my seat.' He told me all the reasons I should run for Congress and I said, 'Dan I agree with everything you said, there's only one problem, I am totally uninterested in going to Congress. If you want to run, come on in, the water's fine.' He had the lead and he had the money. I thought I could raise money but I learned a hard lesson: people don't want to back you if they don't think you can win.
"We figured we really had to be first in that convention, after the poll, our phone rang and the money began to come in - and Marriott's money stopped. That poll sent the signal."
Foxley recalled the debates of the primary:
"Our view was, we'll debate and we'll debate anywhere. Dan, an experienced politician, really thought he could take it to Norm but Norm knew state government better than Dan did."
"I didn't have training in debate but I think I became a good debater," the Governor said, "I knew how to counter. I'm an aural learner - I learn from what I hear. It was a surprise to me that I became governor, I came from a small community, I was a small businessman but I had a lot of connections."
Marriott's abilities, Foxley said, had never really been tested.
"When Dan Marriott was elected to Congress a very popular Democrat, Alan Howell, was running for re-election. He was picked up for soliciting a prostitute and lost the race. Nobody knew Dan Marriott. He didn't want to serve on committees, he was liked by the Republican business establishment but he had never really spent the years he was in Congress traversing the state. Norm was the guy behind the scenes that had a built-in political machine."
Bangerter reflected on his primary win:
"I don't know, I think Marriott thought he could do it. He started to get nervous toward the end and he was surprised that he lost but you have to know his history, he never had a race. He was a good guy."
In the General Election, Bangerter faced former U.S. Representative Wayne Owens.
"We knew we had a good chance if we didn't blow it. It had been 20 years since Republicans had the governorship and we had elected Republicans in all the state races below governor and also two U.S. Senators. We kind of felt it was ours to lose and soon the money started coming in," Foxley explained.
The campaign chose its slogan, the three E's: Education, Economic Development and Efficiency in State Government.
"What other platform is there?" smiled the Governor.
Owens made some headway in the southeast corner of the state where the state was considering burying high level nuclear waste. The Bangerter campaign took a cautious approach,
"Wayne said 'over my dead body!' and he cut into us. We lost eight to 10 points. It's probably a good thing they didn't have any money, I'd like to tell you we did some brilliant things but we didn't," confessed Foxley.
When would-be public servants approach the Governor these days, seeking his advice, Bangerter tells them:
"Don't listen to people who tell you it's yours. You've gotta be prepared to work. I'd never thought in terms of being Governor.
"When Harry Truman went to the Senate, Pendergast - the boss in Missouri said, 'now Harry, when you walk into the Senate you're gonna look around and think, now how the hell did I get here? In six months you're gonna look around and say, now how they hell did they get here?'
"When I went to the legislature I was cautious because I thought they were something special. But I found out they're just people. I didn't have an agenda except to just try to do what you're supposed to do, try to do the right thing. When I went into the legislature I thought everything was wrong but I learned. I really sat down with myself and said, 'look, if you're going to do this you really have to base your decisions on good information not on some preconceived notion.' And I watch liberals and conservatives refuse that. Let's just do what's right, the politics will take care of themselves. If you're in the Governor's office, if you're a sane human being, power has to sober you."
He came from a family of poor farmers - the 10th of 11 children.
"As a young kid I got picked on quite a bit but by the time I got to high school I was class president. I was active in sports and I was competitive.
"I thought I'd lost my first election, Republicans were losing everything and when I turned off the television that night, I thought I'd lost."
That was in 1974 and Bangerter was a 41-year-old Republican state house candidate, running in a traditionally Democratic district while Republican President Richard Nixon was resigning his office. By morning he discovered that he had won the seat, the only Utah Republican that year to unseat a Democrat.
His ascendancy to the Governor's office, by his campaign manager's account, wasn't the culmination of any grand scheme. It was the natural progression of the state's great leader.
"Norm is one of my favorite people ever. The last of an era, He's common sensical, he can read people better than anyone I've ever known. This isn't a guy who came to the legislature with the life's plan of being governor," recalled Doug Foxley.
Bangerter had left college a few hours shy of a degree. Raised in the Mormon Church he keeps his faith close to his vest.
"I was 28 and they called me to be a Mormon Bishop and I spent the next 18 years as Bishop and Stake President, all volunteer no pay," he said. "I never stated in a brochure or anything else publicly, that I was a Mormon, I don't believe you do that. People would say, 'does the church influence you?' and I'd say 'no, they have their responsibilities and I have mine.'"
He started as a builder and evolved into a developer. Soon he was organizing other builders to create large housing developments for the Salt Lake Valley's booming population.
"I've always had my own business, always been my own boss. I was nearing what I figured was the end of my terms as Bishop and I was interested in politics. I had been a delegate to state and county conventions. In 74 I sat down with my wife and said, 'well, maybe we'll run for the legislature.' During my second year I got involved in leadership. A freshman legislator in my class ran and lost and she said, 'if you'da run, you'da won.'"
The Governor credits some of his political success to the people skills he honed in business. In his first run for leadership in the Utah House of Representatives he beat his challenger handily.
"I had a lot of experience dealing with people," he recalled, "I helped organize six builders into creating a development company. The rest of that term, I was the guy who stepped in."
And others stepped aside. In his third term as a Representative he was elected Speaker of the House.
"I served two terms as Speaker, nobody had done that for 40 years but I had no opposition," he said.
He climbed into leadership roles easily and with confidence. Foxley describes him as a natural leader:
"There's an aura about him. It's soothing, it's comforting. If he's sitting in the room and something tough comes along, you look to him, 'well Norm, what are we going to do?'"
His years in the State House won the confidence of fellow legislators, along with county commissioners and mayors. During his first term as Speaker of the House, people began to talk about running him for Governor.
"People don't get drafted for jobs like that, you have to go after it," the Governor insisted.
The incumbent Governor, a Democrat, was expected to run again.
"The 800-pound gorilla was Scott Matheson. Had he run, he would have been extremely formidable. In 1980 he withstood the Reagan landslide - Norm decided if he was going to do this he would do so before Matheson's announcement," Foxley recalled.
Matheson didn't run but Republican Congressman Dan Marriott had his sights set on the office. Marriott was the early favorite and made fundraising for Bangerter impossible.
"I couldn't raise any money. Everybody wanted to see the polls first and Dan Marriott, a four-term Congressman, was way ahead so we put our money into finding delegates. We went everywhere and I spent a year doing it. I didn't announce until after the legislative session in February. The minute it was over we announced. There was another guy in the legislature who was going to run and I knew he'd announce after the session but I didn't want to wait - I didn't want to be perceived as being afraid of him," the Governor said.
The race was going to be a heated one. Along with Marriott, Brigham Young professor Karl Snow, State Party Chairman Bob Wright (who had nearly won the 1980 election) and political gadfly Laura Ferguson all threw their hats into the ring.
"The Salt Lake money group, they all rallied behind Dan Marriott," Foxley recalled, "he was the establishment candidate. Utah has this unique caucus convention system, so we sat down and decided a couple of things…"
Bangerter met with all of his colleagues in the House and won their endorsements.
"Of a 75-member house we had over 50 Republicans and all but three were supporting me. In the Senate there were 21 senators and I had half of them signed up," Bangerter recalled.
"This group was our base," Foxley explained, "so we'd have enough support at the convention. Our whole game plan was to leverage our relationship with the legislature, who loved and revered Norm and would invite people to their homes to listen to him speak. We thought we were going to win but we had to run three serious races: a convention race, a primary race and the general election race. We came out number one in the convention in June."
"Foxley will tell you I used to call him every night at 11 o'clock and say, 'am I winning or should I quit now?" the Governor chuckled, "Dan Jones (Deseret News) came out with his poll. It showed I was going to get 42 percent of the vote at the convention. Marriott was at 28, Snow was down around 20. As we got closer everyone of them came to me and said, 'well we're going to have a primary.' I had a phone bank set up and every night we would dial delegates and I traveled the whole state."
The Governor recalled a conversation with his primary opponent before anyone had announced.
"Marriott called me in November of 83 and said, 'I'm gonna run for Governor and I'm gonna announce tomorrow and you ought to run for my seat.' He told me all the reasons I should run for Congress and I said, 'Dan I agree with everything you said, there's only one problem, I am totally uninterested in going to Congress. If you want to run, come on in, the water's fine.' He had the lead and he had the money. I thought I could raise money but I learned a hard lesson: people don't want to back you if they don't think you can win.
"We figured we really had to be first in that convention, after the poll, our phone rang and the money began to come in - and Marriott's money stopped. That poll sent the signal."
Foxley recalled the debates of the primary:
"Our view was, we'll debate and we'll debate anywhere. Dan, an experienced politician, really thought he could take it to Norm but Norm knew state government better than Dan did."
"I didn't have training in debate but I think I became a good debater," the Governor said, "I knew how to counter. I'm an aural learner - I learn from what I hear. It was a surprise to me that I became governor, I came from a small community, I was a small businessman but I had a lot of connections."
Marriott's abilities, Foxley said, had never really been tested.
"When Dan Marriott was elected to Congress a very popular Democrat, Alan Howell, was running for re-election. He was picked up for soliciting a prostitute and lost the race. Nobody knew Dan Marriott. He didn't want to serve on committees, he was liked by the Republican business establishment but he had never really spent the years he was in Congress traversing the state. Norm was the guy behind the scenes that had a built-in political machine."
Bangerter reflected on his primary win:
"I don't know, I think Marriott thought he could do it. He started to get nervous toward the end and he was surprised that he lost but you have to know his history, he never had a race. He was a good guy."
In the General Election, Bangerter faced former U.S. Representative Wayne Owens.
"We knew we had a good chance if we didn't blow it. It had been 20 years since Republicans had the governorship and we had elected Republicans in all the state races below governor and also two U.S. Senators. We kind of felt it was ours to lose and soon the money started coming in," Foxley explained.
The campaign chose its slogan, the three E's: Education, Economic Development and Efficiency in State Government.
"What other platform is there?" smiled the Governor.
Owens made some headway in the southeast corner of the state where the state was considering burying high level nuclear waste. The Bangerter campaign took a cautious approach,
"Wayne said 'over my dead body!' and he cut into us. We lost eight to 10 points. It's probably a good thing they didn't have any money, I'd like to tell you we did some brilliant things but we didn't," confessed Foxley.
When would-be public servants approach the Governor these days, seeking his advice, Bangerter tells them:
"Don't listen to people who tell you it's yours. You've gotta be prepared to work. I'd never thought in terms of being Governor.
"When Harry Truman went to the Senate, Pendergast - the boss in Missouri said, 'now Harry, when you walk into the Senate you're gonna look around and think, now how the hell did I get here? In six months you're gonna look around and say, now how they hell did they get here?'
"When I went to the legislature I was cautious because I thought they were something special. But I found out they're just people. I didn't have an agenda except to just try to do what you're supposed to do, try to do the right thing. When I went into the legislature I thought everything was wrong but I learned. I really sat down with myself and said, 'look, if you're going to do this you really have to base your decisions on good information not on some preconceived notion.' And I watch liberals and conservatives refuse that. Let's just do what's right, the politics will take care of themselves. If you're in the Governor's office, if you're a sane human being, power has to sober you."
