Andrea Drusch reports:
Lee, a tea-party favorite who unseated incumbent GOP Sen. Bob Bennett in his 2010 campaign, drew the ire of Utah’s establishment leaders for pushing the 2013 government shutdown. Most notably, in December 2014, Zions Bank president Scott Anderson and former state party chair Jon Huntsman Sr. called Lee an “embarrassment” and an “extremist,” and they told Politico they were seeking a candidate to run against him. Anderson, one of the biggest political influencers in the state, commissioned surveys from Utah pollster Dan Jones showing Lee as vulnerable in a primary.
Yet just three months later—after a handful of candidates turned down the opportunity to challenge Lee— Anderson’s name appeared on a list of cochairs released by Lee’s reelection campaign, along with Huntsman’s son, former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. In that release, Anderson praised Lee for “[collaborating] on an agenda focused on meaningful reform.”