Sen. Hatch looking to avoid revolt within GOP

[June 26, 2012]  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Over the past two years, GOP primaries have ended the careers of several veteran Republican politicians who were backed by the party's establishment. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is seeking to avoid the same fate in his first primary challenge since winning office in 1976.

Hatch's race is the premier event as several states hold primaries Tuesday. Among them is New York, where Rep. Charlie Rangel is running for a 22nd term, the first time he's faced voters since the House censured him 18 months ago for failing to pay all his taxes and for filing misleading financial disclosure statements.

A few months ago, Hatch was considered vulnerable -- like his former Republican colleague Robert Bennett, who was booted from the Senate two years ago at the Utah nominating convention, and like six-term Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who lost in last month's Indiana GOP primary.

But Hatch, 78, is now viewed as the heavy favorite in Tuesday's matchup against former state Sen. Daniel Liljenquist. Hatch has enjoyed a huge resource advantage that let him unleash the most expensive and detailed campaign operation in Utah's history. Hatch raised about $10 million, and that has allowed the campaign to contact thousands of voters individually and to spread two messages on the airways: He has the backing of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and his seniority on the Senate Finance Committee would benefit the state.

Liljenquist, 37, is a relative newcomer to the Utah political scene. He enjoyed recognition for leading efforts to overhaul the pension system for the state's employees during his first term as a legislator. Instead of opting to rise through the state's political ranks, he chose to take on the state's best-known political figure.

Liljenquist has seized on voters' concerns about the growing national debt and has tried to make the case that Hatch has been a major contributor to that debt by voting continually to raise the federal debt ceiling, supporting a Medicare drug benefit and working with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to establish the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Utah has a unique nominating system, and Hatch was widely viewed as most vulnerable when about 4,000 GOP stalwarts gathered at the state's nominating convention in April. Delegates at the convention tend to be more conservative than the GOP electorate. The Hatch campaign team spent months behind the scenes trying to generate a new crop of delegates to the convention, and that work paid off, with the large majority of this year's delegates being new to the process. In the end, Hatch won 59.2 percent of the delegates, just shy of the 60 percent he needed to avoid a runoff with Liljenquist.

The Hatch campaign includes many of the state's top political consultants and strategists. It also hired some of the tea party activists who had helped generate Sen. Mike Lee's win two years ago.

"It was an organizational effort beyond anything the state has seen before," Hatch campaign manager Dave Hansen said. "Fortunately, we had the resources to pay the costs on that organizational effort."

Much of the money fueling Hatch's campaign came from corporations and trade groups that frequently have business before the Senate Finance Committee, which Hatch probably would chair if the GOP can win the Senate in November. Hansen said Hatch is not beholden to any particular group other than the residents of Utah.

Liljenquist's camp said it has motivated supporters who are expected to head to the polls in a low-turnout election. Holly Richardson, a campaign spokeswoman, said that in recent years candidates such as Lee and Rep. Jason Chaffitz fared better than pre-election polls had said they would. She said the campaign was reaching out to voters who don't normally participate in primaries.

The winner of the GOP primary will be the huge favorite to win the general election in November against Democratic candidate Scott Howell.

[Associated Press; By KEVIN FREKING and PAUL FOY]

Freking reported from Washington.

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