Bill Orton: An unlikely politician

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Bill Orton was an unlikely politician. Yet he pulled off one of the great election upsets in recent Utah history when he captured the 3rd Congressional District seat in 1990 and held it for three terms.

Orton, you see, was a Democrat, and the Utah 3rd, dominated as it is by Utah County, is considered one of the strongest Republican fortresses in the nation. That he kept the seat for six years drove the GOP nuts. That alone probably gave Orton great satisfaction.

He was a tax attorney and unapologetic policy wonk with a fascination for budget and tax numbers and the acronyms of government programs. His large glasses gave him an owlish appearance, though his full head of hair also made him youthful looking.

The man was a study in contrasts, and the fact that he died Saturday in an all-terrain-vehicle accident at Little Sahara Sand Dunes is one of those. Looking at buttoned-down Bill Orton, you wouldn't have pegged him as an ATV guy.

He was a political outlier. True, he had some of the bona fides to run for office in Utah County -- bachelor's and law degrees from Brigham Young University, and he was a Mormon. But when he ran for Congress in 1990 he was -- gasp -- middle-aged and single! A campaign ad by his opponent that made hay of that fact actually helped to get him elected. This open-mindedness among 3rd District Republican voters was something of a surprise in itself.

He later married during his second term and fathered two sons, which adds a double note of poignancy to his untimely passing.

While in Congress, he tried to carve out an identity independent of party labels. He helped to found The Coalition, a group of fiscally moderate Democrats who tooka dim view ofdeficit spending and proposed realistic budgets that avoided the extremes of Republican tax-cutting and Democratic borrowing. He voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement and the assault-weapons ban, but also a constitutional amendment to protect the flag from desecration.

Ultimately, he was undone by President Clinton's unilateral designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, which still chafes many downstate Utahns.

He became a candidate one more time to run against Mike Leavitt for governor in 2000 on a progressive education platform, and was buried by the popular Republican. But the memory of his congressional races has given Utah Democrats hope ever since.