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Title: Utah Republican convention: How Orrin Hatch beat back a tea party revolt
Source:
Christian Science Monitor
URL Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Electi ... h-beat-back-a-tea-party-revolt
Published: Apr 21, 2012
Author: Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP
Post Date: 2012-04-21 14:30:52 by We The People
Keywords: None
Views: 2714
Comments: 7
As Republicans in Utah have turned more moderate since 2010, veteran US Sen. Orrin Hatch has turned more conservative. Taken together, this could help Hatch survive a tea party challenge at today’s Republican nominating convention. Six-term Senator Orrin Hatch entered today’s Republican nominating convention in Sandy, Utah, with the polling winds at his back, suggesting that an aggressive and historically costly campaign to beat back a tea party revolt has worked. Several polls relesed Saturday give Hatch the support of about 60 percent of Utah Republicans – 4,000 of whom are convention delegates chosen, in a unique system, by neighborhood caucuses throughout the state. Under Utah law, 60 percent support among delegates allows the winner to skip a scheduled June primary and head straight for the general election in November. In conservative Utah, it’s largely understood that the GOP nominee becomes the winner of the race. If Hatch can’t reach the 60 percent threshold, he will go into a two-way primary race against his challengers, most prominently former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist and state Rep. Chris Herrod. IN PICTURES: Tea party politics After Utah’s longest-serving senator spent a near record $5 million on the run-up to the convention, he still has $3 million in the campaign chest to spend if the race goes to a primary. At the same time, national tea party-affiliated groups have been outspent by groups that have backed Hatch, including the National Rifle Association. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has also backed Hatch, an important endorsement in heavily-Mormon Utah. Hatch has done several things right, says Keith Poole, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, including recognizing early on that he would be challenged, focusing on the nominating process and, in essence, going back to Utah and “punching noses.” The backdrop for Hatch’s vigilance has been the plight of former US Sen. Bob Bennett, the Utah Republican who lost to a tea party candidate in 2010, and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, who is in the campaign of his life against tea party-backed candidate Richard Mourdock. In both Utah and Indiana, national tea party groups have tried to replicate their numerous successful attacks against more moderate incumbents in 2010, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars from national donors to air attack ads against two senators whom they see as having lost some of their conservative values and have thus damaged efforts to fight the more progressive agenda of Democrats and the White House. “[Hatch] has a history of reaching across the aisle to work with Democrats, which obviously does not sit well with many tea party activists and other conservatives,” write CNN reporters Ashley Killough and Paul Steinhauser. “But Hatch has taken steps since the mid-term elections to fight that criticism by highlighting his conservative chops.” Continued at www.csmonitor.com/USA/Ele...party-revolt/%28page%29/2
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#1. To: We The People (#0)
. LOL! The establishment repukelican'ts are pi$$ing themselves HOPING that the so called "tea party" is gone and done for. Want to BET on it kiddies? See you in NOVEMBER. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spoiled, stupid and ignorant, brain dead phuckwads, libTURD fools, tools, and idiots, are the real sickness; the messiah "king" obammy and his regime are only the symptoms.
That has to be one of the most ridiculous statements I've read in quite a while. Hatch is a Democrats best friend and a conservatives worse nightmare.
Hatch promised the Mormons that he and Mitt would bring back polygamy, with the added twist of including gay marriage. They're all hoping to add Lindsey Graham, and Barney Frank to their stables.
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
LOL! Bingo! I agree completely and that one sentence was the reason for posting this entire article.
LOL! Hmmmmm, Hatch does kind of resemble Caligula.
SANDY, Utah (AP) — Utah Republicans denied U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch a clear path to a seventh and final term Saturday, forcing the 78-year-old lawmaker into a June primary with 37-year-old former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist. Hatch fell short of the outright nomination by fewer than three dozen votes from the nearly 4,000 delegates at the party convention. In a matter of weeks, Hatch turned the question of whether he would survive the convention into a question of whether he would reach the 60 percent threshold to earn the nomination. Despite the setback, Hatch holds a significant fundraising edge in what has become the stiffest challenge since his election to the Senate in 1976. The eventual Republican nominee will be the heavy favorite in November because of GOP dominance in Utah. "A few months ago, a lot of people weren't giving me a chance," Hatch said. "So I feel good. I consider it a victory with everything that happened in the past." Hatch urged that delegates endorse him so he can help repeal President Barack Obama's health care law and potentially lead the powerful Senate Finance Committee if Republicans regain control of the chamber in November. Hatch argued that he was only candidate who had the ability to enact the GOP's priorities from day one of the next congressional session. "I'm a tough old bird, and I've never felt more eager," he said. But Liljenquist said Hatch's seniority was overrated and said that he was ready to work with freshmen Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky in changing how the Senate works. "It is time for a new generation of leaders," Liljenquist said shortly after the results were announced. "We know it to our bones." While most states rely on primaries to secure a party's nomination, Utah elects delegates to get first crack at determining whether a candidate should earn the nomination outright. In all, 10 candidates ran for the Senate seat and took turns Saturday attempting to convince the delegates to support them. Hatch and Liljenquist advanced from the first round of voting after Hatch got 57 percent of the vote and his challenger took 28 percent. In the second round, the incumbent earned 59.2 percent of the vote, just short of the 60 percent needed for the outright nomination. As a result, they will face each other in the June 26 primary. Hatch told delegates that experience can make all the difference in getting conservative priorities passed. "It will be my last six years in the U.S. Senate, but they'll be the best six years and the most critical six years of all," he said.
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
Hopefully not.
#2. To: We The People (#0)
As Republicans in Utah have turned more moderate since 2010, veteran US Sen. Orrin Hatch has turned more conservative.
#3. To: We The People, *Yukon neo-Progressive Vermin* (#0)
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#4. To: Fibr Dog (#2)
That has to be one of the most ridiculous statements I've read in quite a while. Hatch is a Democrats best friend and a conservatives worse nightmare.
#5. To: hondo68 (#3)
Hatch promised the Mormons that he and Mitt would bring back polygamy, with the added twist of including gay marriage. They're all hoping to add Lindsey Graham, and Barney Frank to their stables.
#6. To: We The People, *Yukon neo-Progressive Vermin* (#0)
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch forced into primary fight
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#7. To: hondo68 (#6)
"It will be my last six years in the U.S. Senate, but they'll be the best six years and the most critical six years of all," he said.
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