This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Sometimes, a defeat can turn into a blessing, and Brent Cameron is living, smiling proof.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the spectacular downfall of former Salt Lake County Attorney Ted Cannon, at one time a rising star in the Utah Republican Party who recently has been the subject of eviction actions from the city-run, low-income apartment building he has resided in for several years.

Cannon's career kicked into overdrive in 1978, the year he first was elected county attorney. Cameron, a Democrat, was Cannon's opponent that year and his defeat seemed to make his own seemingly bright political future sputter.

But when Cannon began running into trouble in the shark-invested waters of Salt Lake County government and eventually was convicted of or pleaded no contest to several misdemeanors involving criminal libel, sexual harassment, misuse of his office and unlawful use of county resources, Cameron was flourishing as an unelected government official in both county and state arenas.

In hindsight, Cameron was the superior candidate in 1978, in the sense that his qualifications to that point seemed to make him better-equipped for the stress of the job than those of Cannon, who had little experience as a lawyer before becoming a city prosecutor, making a name for himself by crusading against X-rated theaters.

Cameron began his career in the mid-1960s, working as a research coordinator and transportation specialist in Gov. Calvin Rampton's Utah Industrial Promotion Division, a predecessor to the Department of Economic Development.

He later served as state administrative assistant to Sen. Frank Moss, a law clerk for the state court administrator and chief deputy Salt Lake County attorney.

But by 1978, on the eve of the Reagan Revolution, party labels were more important than experience and job skills, so Cannon the Republican defeated Cameron the Democrat.

It's not the only race where an arguably inferior candidate won the election simply by being a Republican.

You can point to the Salt Lake County attorney race in 1994, when Republican Doug Short defeated Democrat Alan Moll, one of the most experienced government attorneys and lobbyists for county issues in the state. Short ended up fighting constantly with the County Commission, which got so tired of him that they changed the ordinance to do away with his job.

There were the Merrill Cook victories over Rocky Anderson and Lily Eskelson in the 2nd Congressional District. One could argue whether Cook was a better candidate than the two Democrats, but it was the Republicans themselves who decided to do him in in the Republican primary after he served two terms.

Granted, Democrat Jim Matheson has won that race every time since then, but there are exceptions to every rule.

When the far right wing of the Republican Party decided to get rid of up-and-coming Republican State Rep. Nancy Lyon in Davis County, they replaced her with Ted Bradford, who became an embarrassment to the party with his enthusiasm for military-style militias. But the Democrats couldn't beat him. It took another Republican to knock him out.

After Cameron's loss to Cannon, however, he was named by Gov. Scott Matheson to head the State Division of Public Utilities and later to the Utah Public Service Commission, which regulates the state's private utility companies. He was an assistant Utah attorney general from 1989 to 1991, where he headed the office's education division. From 1991 to 1995, he was executive director of the Salt Lake County Administrative Services Department. Since 1995, he has led several divisions of the Salt Lake County Attorney's Office.

Cannon, for his misdeeds, went to jail for a short time and ended up living on Social Security. Had he not been county attorney, his mistakes would not have been so public and the consequences probably not as great.

Had Cameron won, he would have been a Democratic county attorney in the midst of a Republican-dominated County Commission when partisan politics got pretty ugly. Cannon first got into trouble by trying to prosecute Democratic County Treasurer Art Monson for alleged misuse of public resources. Monson was acquitted and Cannon, who many believe was acting at the behest of other Republican officials, began his downward descent.

So Cannon the winner became the loser. And Cameron, the loser, became the winner.

Sometimes, it's not so bad to be a Democrat in Utah.