The Utah Senate race

[YOhio]

just got a bit more interesting. Attorney Mike Lee just joined the primary race to challenge Senator Bennett. He came with an arsenal of endorsements; Norm Bangerter, Jim Hansen and Mark Shurtleff. I was shocked to see the former two oppose the establishments' candidate. Really shocked. Bangerter explained his endorsement thusly:

Bangerter said he supports Lee "because he asked me," and the former governor said no other candidates had sought his support. He said he also opposes deficit spending, which he said has become too rampant, and he believes electing Lee could help stop that.

What a ringing endorsement!

Lee sounds like the typical Republican primary challenger to an incumbent. Founding fathers, lifetime politicians, etc. But he does come from a fantastic pedigree. He's the son of Rex Lee, former clerk to Samuel Alito and Dee Benson and GC to Huntsman. I think Bennett thought he had it made when Shurtleff dropped out, but Lee looks even more dangerous. If Lee can raise some quick cash, which I'm sure he can, it's going to be a fantastic race.

If one thing really concerns me about knocking out Bennett is that HAFB is always vulnerable in BRAC rounds. I can see Hatch likely retiring after his current term expires and Bishop doesn't appear to be someone who wants to stay in office forever. With two young Senators and a young Rep, one of Utah's largest employers could take a decent hit. I'm not sure when the next BRAC rounds will occur, but it will be something to keep an eye out for, especially if it occurs in this administration.

[New Mexican Disaster]

just got a bit more interesting. Attorney Mike Lee just joined the primary race to challenge Senator Bennett. He came with an arsenal of endorsements; Norm Bangerter, Jim Hansen and Mark Shurtleff. I was shocked to see the former two oppose the establishments' candidate. Really shocked. Bangerter explained his endorsement thusly:



What a ringing endorsement!

Lee sounds like the typical Republican primary challenger to an incumbent. Founding fathers, lifetime politicians, etc. But he does come from a fantastic pedigree. He's the son of Rex Lee, former clerk to Samuel Alito and Dee Benson and GC to Huntsman. I think Bennett thought he had it made when Shurtleff dropped out, but Lee looks even more dangerous. If Lee can raise some quick cash, which I'm sure he can, it's going to be a fantastic race.

If one thing really concerns me about knocking out Bennett is that HAFB is always vulnerable in BRAC rounds. I can see Hatch likely retiring after his current term expires and Bishop doesn't appear to be someone who wants to stay in office forever. With two young Senators and a young Rep, one of Utah's largest employers could take a decent hit. I'm not sure when the next BRAC rounds will occur, but it will be something to keep an eye out for, especially if it occurs in this administration.

Lee is moving like a heavyweight, but is his Utah name recognition high enough?

[YOhio]

Lee is moving like a heavyweight, but is his Utah name recognition high enough?

It doesn't have to be. By May he'll have 100% name recognition with the delegates. If he can lock this thing up in convention then he's the new Senator from Utah (with all due respect to Sam Granato, who makes a fine sandwich). Strange things can happen at the Utah GOP Convention. In 2000 Mike Leavitt was forced into a primary by an unknown, Glenn Davis. The Davis campaign was virtually dead, except for a few appearances at the bigger county conventions. But he gave a stirring speech at the state convention and received over 40% of the final vote. His lack of infrastructure and money were later exposed in the primary where he was hammered.

It's also the same convention that almost unseated Chris Cannon two years ago to Jason Chaffetz, who ran his entire campaign for less than 100K. Chaffetz later smoked Cannon in a poor turnout primary.

Like you said, Lee is a heavyweight. If he can really connect with some of the purists who are delegates, then he has a good shot. The problem is that he might be too much of a heavyweight to connect with the home-schooling, Eagle Forum types who are disproportionally represented among the Utah GOP delegates.

[New Mexican Disaster]

Like you said, Lee is a heavyweight. If he can really connect with some of the purists who are delegates, then he has a good shot. The problem is that he might be too much of a heavyweight to connect with the home-schooling, Eagle Forum types who are disproportionally represented among the Utah GOP delegates.

I guess this is the key because Lee is a bit of a Utah blue blood and his fit with the scruffy Republican primary voters, who seem more libertarian than anything frankly, is probably not great. Bennett's fit is not great either but he is not despised like Chris Cannon. It should be a fun one to watch.

[YOhio]

Internal polling shows him in 3rd place! WTF is wrong with the Utah GOP? An drought stricken, energy-resource reliant state wants to oust someone who will be chair of Energy and Water approps? Morons.

[frank ryan]

Internal polling shows him in 3rd place! WTF is wrong with the Utah GOP? An drought stricken, energy-resource reliant state wants to oust someone who will be chair of Energy and Water approps? Morons.

Utah's caucus system is sketchy. It needs to be euthenized.
The FAR RIGHT wing had a major turn out at those meetings.

[Katy Lied]

Utah's caucus system is sketchy. It needs to be euthenized.
The FAR RIGHT wing had a major turn out at those meetings.

You cant blame the church for this. They announced the Demorat caucuses as well.

[pellegrino]

Internal polling shows him in 3rd place! WTF is wrong with the Utah GOP? An drought stricken, energy-resource reliant state wants to oust someone who will be chair of Energy and Water approps? Morons.

Now we see what happens when there is an active political base in an area with one party rule.

[BoylenOver]

White.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Internal polling shows him in 3rd place! WTF is wrong with the Utah GOP? An drought stricken, energy-resource reliant state wants to oust someone who will be chair of Energy and Water approps? Morons.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. This was the main item of discussion at our neighborhood caucus. Some were pretty adamant about tossing Bennett. He definitely has a battle on his hands.

On the bright side, our caucus was encouraging. With only one exception, none of the extremists were elected to be delegates or precinct officials.

[Hallelujah]

Internal polling shows him in 3rd place! WTF is wrong with the Utah GOP? An drought stricken, energy-resource reliant state wants to oust someone who will be chair of Energy and Water approps? Morons.

Using your logic, that is why we will never clean up the mess. We need new blood and new ideas.

[frank ryan]

I'll register as republican and vote for bennett if he makes it out to a the primary (something i have never been able to bring myself to do). looks like lee is dumpster diving for the endorsement of the john bircher types

http://blogs.sltrib.com/utpolitics/index.php

[pellegrino]

It's like a race to the philosophical bottom out there! No, I'm crazier. No I AM. (no seriously, Eagar is).

I had Reed Benson as a BOM teacher at BYU (that's what happened to me!). I really, really liked him as a person but thought the whole political BOM thumping made little sense.

I could much more easily build a testimony of war from the BOM than of any form of political view.

Then you might be interested in this. I couldn't read it all, I wanted to vomit after a few paragraphs.

http://mormonmission.blogspot.com/20...encounter.html

[Viking]

I'm not sure we agree on anything but Reed is a good man.

[pellegrino]

I'm not sure we agree on anything but Reed is a good man.

Of that I have no doubt, what made me sick was the worshipful, servile way the guy wrote about him. I just don't understand that way of praising people.