The buzz in Utah is that Sen. Orrin Hatch may be vulnerable in 2012, especially if a Tea Party insurgent mounts a campaign to snag the nomination at the Utah Republican convention. Last year, Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater knocked off Sen. Bob Bennett on the second ballot, sending the Beehive State into a political tizzy. Lee, of course, now holds the seat and is making an early name for himself as a fiscal hawk.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a 43-year-old Provo Republican, is often mentioned as a possible Hatch challenger. But as Chaffetz and others mull a run, they will not find support from the Tea Party Express, the California-based political action committee that propelled Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, and others to primary victories last year.
Sal Russo, the group’s chief strategist, tells National Review Online that the Tea Party Express will not tangle with Hatch in 2012. “In 1976, when I was scouring the country trying to find people to stand up for Ronald Reagan, there were not very many in the Republican party that would, especially with the president being Jerry Ford. Orrin Hatch, however, stood up and was our state chairman,” Russo explains. “He is somebody who has been willing to stand up for a long time.”
“I think he was an original tea partier,” Russo says. “He has been talking about our issues from the beginning. Orrin is a Reagan conservative, as far as I’m concerned, and that’s as good as it gets.”
Hatch is not a "Reagan Conservative" anymore. He is Bob Dole Go Along to Get Along Party Invite to G-Town Homes. He tried a run at President and lost in the primary. It is time for him to go into that good night, sir. You have served your voters well and that is your parting gift.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePick your man or woman to run for your seat. Democrats know they will not win that seat.
Hatch? Seriously? Among easily identifiable bad things he has done, one of the most recent is advocating for the government to get involved in the BCS! Hardly seems like something a proto-tea partier would do.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnybody that claims to speak for the Tea Party is wrong.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe also wanted to destroy people's computers for "pirating" copyrighted works.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut what has he done lately? It doesn't exactly inspire confidence when you have to go back to '76 to explain your support.
Vox nails it above. The Tea Party is and should remain undirected. The last thing we need is some group deciding that they are the Oracle, decreeing who will be supported and who will not be.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe was buddies with Ted Kennedy, and he voted for Ginsburg. I cannot even remember how many other times he ticked me off, I paid more attn to him when I lived in Utah. When he isn't wheeling and dealing for the establishment he is doing it for his church.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHatch MUST go. We could replace him with another Kennedy and not do much worse.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSetting aside the opinion of the GOP front group that calls itself "Tea Party," I'd note that Hatch has started being more of a conservative since Bennett's ouster. We'll see if it continues and if it's enough...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSorry but this is exactly the mentality the tea party is against. Nobody gets to rest on any laurels.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCorrect me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Senator Hatch the originator of the DREAM Act? I think Utah can do much better than Senator Hatch. He has been in Washington too long.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't target ole Orrin .. he's one of the good guys.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't forget, we have Senator Hatch to thank for the DREAM Act. I'm sure he's a nice man, but he has been in Washington too long.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe will still be primaried, with or without the Tea Party Express group's support. No one group speaks for the Tea Party, and this kind of 'pronouncement' is the reason why no one group ever should!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseChaffetz won't need the Tea Party Express' to defeat Hatch if he decides to run.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNotwithstanding the 1976 activity to his credit, I still believe in the mindset to "not count your Hatches before they chicken." Zero trust of Hatch in this corner. Always willing to legislate with Ted Kennedy, who ran circles around him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah, we wouldn't want an monopoly like the BCS that is worth billions of dollars and that operates across state lines to be investigated by the federal government. Seriously?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHa! "I think he was an original tea partier" might be more correct if referring to the Boston Tea Party of 1773! He may have been a stalwart Reaganite conservative the year my father graduated from high school and was first elected to office, even I can see that six terms in the Senate has turned him into a reed bending with the winds of progressivism on many fronts.
Like most other Utahns, I like Hatch, think he's a good guy, somebody you'd like to have as a neighbor. Does a pretty good job bringing home the pork, too -- which is part of the problem that the Tea Party movement is trying to fix. Thank you sir for your service, but it's time to come home for a quiet retirement, maybe record another album.
Whether or not Tea Party Express supports a primary candidate to challenge him, someone will do so. I would be shocked 1) if Rep. Jason Chaffetz doesn't challenge him, and 2) if Hatch is the GOP candidate in the 2012 general.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHatch is exactly the kind of senator the Tea Party should be challenging. Hatch has indeed been sounding more conservative since Bennett was removed; much as Arlen Specter did every time he was up for re-election. If memory serves, Hatch was one of the loudest backers of the law that allowed the government to seize private property on a mere suspicion of criminal activity and then make the owner spend huge amounts of money and time trying to get back his own property even if he wasn't charged or found guilty. If the Tea Party expects to remain a significant force in American politics it should be looking all over Utah for someone that actually has a genuine conservative viewpoint and can get elected. Hatch is a "bi-partisan" panderer in the John McCain mold, i.e., conservative only when he's up for re-election.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA few things strike me about Russo's statement. First, he goes back to 1976 to make the case why Hatch should be left alone, but doesn't cite anything he's done since that time. The other is that his defense states that Hatch has been "talking about our issues from the beginning". Yet he steers clear of discussing if his actions were consistent with what he was "talking" about.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe method of choosing the champion of college football in the US is something worth the expenditure of tax dollars to investigate?
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