Orrin Hatch Defeats Dan Liljenquist At Home Caucus

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch in a recent file photo

While the final delegate counts from Thursday night's Republican caucuses in Utah will likely not be known until early next week, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) scored an important win on his chief primary opponent's home turf.

Hatch supporters captured the three delegate spots to represent former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist's home district of Davis County, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Liljenquist, a Tea Party favorite, is Hatch's chief opponent as the veteran senator battles to win a seventh term in office. Thursday night's caucuses are the first step in the process to elect delegates.

Hatch saw strong backing in the areas around Salt Lake City, according to published reports. At Liljenquist's home caucus, Hatch supporters had the majority and grabbed the three spots. Liljenquist said he was expecting to fare poorly in his home precinct.

"This has always been a Hatch area. One of my neighbors is the finance director for Hatch," Liljenquist told the Tribune. "I think it's a generational thing. A lot of older people voted here, but we're hearing reports from places like Utah County, Herriman and South Jordan that we did well with younger crowds."

The 4,000 delegates will meet next month to pick a candidate for Hatch's senate seat, with Hatch facing off against Liljenquist and state Rep. Chris Herrod, along with several other candidates. If a candidate receives 60 percent of the vote, they gain the nomination; if no one captures that much, the two highest vote-getters advance to a June primary. In 2010, U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett (R) saw his reelection campaign collapse when he was bested at the convention by Mike Lee and Tom Bridgewater, with Lee capturing the seat. In 2004, then-Gov. Olene Walker saw Republican delegates deny her a chance to run for another term.

Liljenquist, 37, has become a Tea Party favorite nationally. Freedom Works, a Tea Party-aligned group, spent $600,000 to help Liljenquist's caucus campaign and helped to recruit delegate candidates for the former state senator.

According to the Twitter stream on the Utah Politics blog, high turnout was reported across the state, with some caucuses being dominated by younger voters, and others by older voters. One precinct reported a 300 percent increase in attendance over the 2010 caucus. Statewide attendance is estimated at between 125,000 and 200,000.

Jordan Rogers, a Brigham Young student who was up for a delegate spot, tweeted that 70 out of 83 attendees at his South Jordan caucus were under the age of 30 and Hatch captured the delegate spots. South Jordan is located in Salt Lake County.

Draper City Councilman Jeff Stenquist (R) tweeted:

@JeffStenquist
Jeff Stenquist

108 attendees in DRP024 last night. Both delegates Hatch supporters. With that turnout 2 years ago Bennett would still be in. #utpol

March 16, 2012 2:59 pm via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite

Draper is a community of 42,000 spanning parts of Salt Lake and Utah Counties.

Steven Starks, a South Jordan resident, tweeted that he won a delegate spot at his caucus and will be voting for Liljenquist at next month's convention.

The high attendance is credited to the Mormon church's encouraging members to attend the caucuses.

"The brethren told us it was important, so we came," Haley Donaldson told the Provo Daily Herald, noting that church activities that she and her husband had planned to attend were canceled on Thursday evening.

Comments

[joenova]

01:17 PM on 03/17/2012

I didn't think this guy had any more of his soul to sell. How much does the tea party pay for a soul?

[Clevelandinwi]

11:53 AM on 03/17/2012

No matter who is nominated, Utah is sure to send another 'mentally challenged' mormon to the Senate.

[YeahIThoughtSo]

11:26 AM on 03/17/2012

The Tea Party can make even Orrin Hatch look good.

[Patriot86]

11:02 AM on 03/17/2012

This is a sign that the tpublicans are done.

[BigHound1]

10:48 AM on 03/17/2012

If any of these Senators should receive a Tea Party Candidate running against them in the primaries, I say "What in the world were you thinking??? Every current Repub Senator is further to the right than any of them 10 years ago. They would have primaried Strom Thurman!!!"

I do hope that they continue to pursue this fractioning of the repubs' party. Maybe a credible third party can be created in the process. It only strengthens the Democratic Party and I am thankful for their overreach.

[ldjwood]

10:44 AM on 03/17/2012

We don't need anymore teabags in government

[steveruger]

10:35 AM on 03/17/2012

Orin Hatch had the temerity to actually be friends with Ted Kennedy, despite their disagreements. No wonder the Tea party wants him out.

[NVEd]

10:25 AM on 03/17/2012

Sounds like Utah's Repubs didn't want another vacant person like Mike Lee representing Utah in the U.S.Senate.

[booker52]

10:16 AM on 03/17/2012

I live in Utah and I want Hatch gone, no tea baggers need apply.

[opus1dog]

10:14 AM on 03/17/2012

That TeaParty - it's so two years ago.

[kitc1981]

09:52 AM on 03/17/2012

I will be curious to see the final tally. Utah is perhaps the reddest of the red states and it will be interesting to see exactly how much influence the Tea Party really has. This is a litmus test. They had some success in Ohio but failed miserably in Alabama and Mississippi. If Hatch survives this TP uprising it doesn't bode well for the viability of the movement going forward.

[No1Liberal]

09:44 AM on 03/17/2012

The far right never had a better Senator than Orrin Hatch. He will continue to go further to the right if it gets him elected! He's a typical Republican!

[steveruger]

10:36 AM on 03/17/2012

But he is not bat**** crazy, which makes him unacceptable to the Tea Party.

[MekhongKurt]

08:41 AM on 03/17/2012

Perhaps the most interesting factoid in this article is that Mormon Church Elders cancelled church activities planned for Caucus Day AND encouraged Mormons to attend and take part.

I keep hearing an echo -- something about separation of church and state mixed in with tax-free status for bona fide religious organizations, which includes the LDS.

[thisisntworking]

08:52 AM on 03/17/2012

Big swing and a miss. A church telling people to get out and vote is just as American as anything else in our political process. If they said get out and vote for candidate x then you would have a point. If the left complains about everything they do then your argument will be watered down when a real injustice occurs.

[kitc1981]

09:55 AM on 03/17/2012

In some respects I agree. But this is Utah, where the Mormon church controls everything. It is truly a theocracy. Try running a business, or running for political office there without the blessing of the church. I don't fault the church for encouraging them to participate...what we don't know is if and how they are attempting to influence the outcome.

[No1Liberal]

09:46 AM on 03/17/2012

The Mormon Church is the worst of the lot when it comes to mingling Church and State. It is a church state. I understand you are black-balled and can't even find work in Salt Lake City unless you are of the Mormon faith! That says it all!

[booker52]

10:18 AM on 03/17/2012

I have lived in the state since the early 70's and I have never had a problem getting a job and no I am not a member of the LDS church.

[BruceYoung]

04:35 PM on 03/26/2012

"I understand": an interesting expression apparently meaning "I've heard somewhere." I know for sure that the claim a person "can't even find work in Salt Lake City unless you are of the Mormon faith" is false--for one thing, the majority of Salt Lake City residents are non-Mormon. I'm sure there is (unfortunately) some religious bias that makes life harder than it should be for those not of the dominant group (something true in many places in the country). But I'm also sure Church leaders are not happy with that bias or its negative results; they've spoken repeatedly against mistreatment of or insensitivity to those of other faiths or even of no faith.

[nico88]

08:34 AM on 03/17/2012

Apprently the one thing in common with younger and older voters in Utah is their support for the right wing people hating Tea Party.

[upset99]

08:29 AM on 03/17/2012

Goldwater says it all! http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/about/Goldwater.html

"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "
Congressional Record, September 16, 1981

[steveruger]

10:38 AM on 03/17/2012

Mr. Goldwater would be "Primaried" out of office as a RINO by the Tea Party today.

[Don Clanton]

11:06 AM on 03/17/2012

Attila the Hun is a socialist.