Remembering Former Rep. Merrill Cook: Man Who Dared

A month after former Rep. Merrill Cook died at age 79, fellow Utah Republicans are still talking about the kind of man he was.

The multi-millionaire explosives manufacturer served two terms in Congress from the Beehive State's 2nd District, but is far better remembered for the more than a dozen losing races he mounted for other offices.

Moreover, Cook used Utah's initiative-and-referendum system to advance issues such as tax limitation, term limits, and thwarting Utah's guest-worker program in which undocumented workers could apply for work visas.

In so doing, he dared to take on his state's powerful business community as well as the "establishment" in his own Republican Party.

"Merrill sure knew how to shake things up and frequently did just that," former State GOP Chair Dave Hansen told Newsmax. "But in so doing, he used his own money for all those campaigns and, to the end, he was his own man."

A graduate of the University of Utah and Harvard Business School, the young Cook co-founded Cook Slurry Company, and it quickly became a lucrative manufacturer of explosives for Utah's mining industry.

It made Cook a wealthy man and paved the way for him to pursue a passion for politics he developed after losing a student election at age 8.

In 1984, he ran for the state School Board and lost. A year later, he ran for mayor of Salt Lake City and lost. Then in 1986, he lost a tight battle for the Salt Lake County Commission.

In 1988, he tried a different tactic to get into politics: launching initiatives on the state ballot that would have slashed state and local taxes by $900 million. The measure won the blessing of economist Art Laffer, father of the eponymous "curve" for cutting tax rates, and attracted many volunteers.

But the measure never succeeded.

That same year, Cook — incensed with GOP establishment for what he felt was their lack of assistance for his campaigns and initiative — ran for governor as an independent.

Both Republican incumbent Norm Bangerter and Democratic challenger and former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson would debate for years which of them beat third-place finisher Cook in the three-candidate race won by Bangerter.

In 1990, having joined with both the state Democratic Party and the AFL-CIO to support a new initiative to scrap the state sales tax and raise the minimum wage (which eventually fizzled out), Cook forged the new Utah Independent Party.

Running under its banner for governor in 1992, he came in second with 34% to GOP nominee and winner Mike Leavitt's 42%.

Two years later, Cook again ran on the Utah Independent Party's banner — this time for Congress — and placed third. But when winner and GOP Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz's husband Joe drew national attention following revelations of massive campaign violations and was the subject of a nationwide manhunt ("Where's Waldholtz?"), the congresswoman tearfully announced her retirement.

Cook ran as a Republican, defied the party by winning the primary, and finally won a House seat.

With a decidedly conservative record, Rep. Cook was reelected in 1998. But in 2000, his years of antagonizing the GOP caught up with him and he lost the primary for renomination. 

Cook would spend years attempting a comeback — first by trying to regain his former 2nd District seat, then in bids against Rep. Chris Cannon in the 3rd District, for U.S. senator, and twice for Salt Lake City mayor.

In 2013, Cook's drive and ambition were slowed by an opponent he had never faced: Alzheimer's disease, with which his beloved wife Camille was diagnosed.

Cook promptly put his ambitions on the back burner and became Camille's main caregiver — cooking, bathing her and driving her to doctor's appointments. Camille died in 2015 at age 68.

Merrill Cook is regarded by many as an eccentric, a crank, a perennial candidate and someone "beyond the pale." But he is regarded by many others in Utah as one who defied the odds and the powers-that-be to make a particular point. 

He is silent and unseen now. But it seems a safe bet to say that among those who knew him or watched his career, he won't be forgotten. 

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Click Here Now.