Sen. Orrin Hatch Reelection: FreedomWorks Claims Utah Senate Race Victory Regardless Of Results

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch

With polls showing a battle to the finish in Saturday's state Republican convention vote for U.S. Senate in Utah, a national Tea Party group is claiming a partial victory.

FreedomWorks, the national Tea Party organization which has been leading the fight to unseat Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for two years, said it is confident that it can force a primary against the six-term senator. But the group's representative said, regardless of the results this weekend, it has forced Hatch to take more conservative positions

Hatch is running against former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist, and state Rep. Chris Herrod at the convention. Convention delegates were elected during party caucuses statewide in March.

"(Orrin Hatch) was talking about big government, and promoting SCHIP and TARP," FreedomWorks' Russ Walker told HuffPost. "Today, he has backed away from them."

Under Utah election law, Hatch will need 60 percent of the vote at the convention to win the nomination outright. If Hatch falls under the target, he and the second highest vote-getter -- likely Liljenquist -- will face off in a June 26 primary. In 2010, Sen. Bob Bennett (R) saw his reelection hopes die at the convention when he lost a ballot spot to two Tea Party aligned candidates. The Bennett defeat gave hope to Tea Party groups seeking to oust Hatch.

Walker said that FreedomWorks has met in the last two weeks with delegates to discuss Liljenquist's campaign and to provide details of Hatch's record. The group has focused on Hatch's past support for health care reform in the 1990s, along with support for the SCHIP children's health program and the federal bailout of financial institutions.

The Deseret News reports that a new poll shows Hatch with 61-percent of the convention vote, but the poll's margin of error is more than 4 percent. The poll had Liljenquist at 21 percent.

The group is setting up an information booth at the convention, Walker said, and he expected 60 volunteers to staff the effort on the group's behalf during the convention. FreedomWorks is prohibited from whipping delegates on the convention floor, but Walker said Liljenquist is planning to have a whip operation in place to lobby delegates before the vote.

Hatch's campaign manager, Dave Hansen, told the Deseret News that the incumbent plans an active convention campaign.

"It's nice to have that support going in, but that's not going to slow us down from being well-prepared for the convention Saturday," Hansen said to the Deseret News. "While we would like 60 percent, if that doesn't happen we'll be ready for a primary."

Walker said that FreedomWorks continues to plug away at the Utah race, but also has turned its attention toward Indiana where the group is assisting Treasurer Richard Murdock in his primary battle against Republican Sen. Dick Lugar.

The group plans to monitor Hatch if he wins, said Walker. "At the end of the day if we lost, Orrin Hatch has made a lot of promises and he'll need to keep them."

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[BEVO31]

08:24 PM on 05/06/2012

THE TEA PARTY IS GETTING RID OF ALL OF THE RINOS THANK GOODNESS!! GOOD RIDDANCE.

[Wurkenstiff]

08:50 AM on 04/22/2012

The Tea Party continues to push our elected officials towards more fiscally sound logic.

If you want to the Tea Party to go away, start reducing government spending.
$2.4 trillion a year isn't enough?
Liberals that want more taxes must be lunatics!

[Jamgrae]

06:52 PM on 04/22/2012

The reason we have this spending amount in the first place is because a conservative, not a liberal, drove the deficit through the roof with 2 unpaid for wars, and 2 tax hikes for the rich. When that happened, the Tea Party was nowhere in sight. Now that it will take additional amounts to straighten this mess out (in infrastructure building and employment), the Tea Party has arrived to stop our return to financial stability. One of the strongest examples being the lowering of our nation's credit rating. Lunatic liberals who want more taxes must be like the "lunatic" Bill Clinton, who because he raised taxes on the rich, did away with the deficit and gave us one of the nation's biggest surpluses in 13 years prior to his administration...AND, didn't have to lower the deficit by messing with Social Security, Medicare or any of the safety nets that Paul Ryan and the rest of that conservative bunch wants to destroy.

[Wurkenstiff]

11:02 AM on 04/23/2012

People have spoken out about Federal spending, it's risks and it's costs long before (literally astronomical) terms like TRILLION became commonplace.
We had bank bailouts under Bush and people got organized only to be further incensed by a near trillion dollar spending package under Obama.

Using your standard people didn't despise corporate greed until OWS started camping!

If raising taxes was so important to the recovery why didn't Obama and the Dems just let the cuts expire? They just needed to do...nothing. This is proof that the issue of raising taxes is purely political.

When Dems could, they didn't. When Dems can't, they want to.

Our credit rating dropped due to debt and the fact that nobody works to reduce it. So the Tea Party trying to lower federal spending adds to the debt? Nonsense. The rating companies cited things like the unstable climate in Washington. Unstable because one side wants to keep on piling up debt and the other wants to lower it.

Clinton did not just raise taxes, he lowered some and reduced spending which Obama has no inclination to do. For instance, capital gains taxes on homeowners.
http://money.cnn.com/1996/08/29/economy/capitalgains_pkg/

There is a reason Harry Reid did Obama a favor by not even sponsoring his budget this year. He was trying to save the President from another embarrassing 97-0 vote down. This just proves Obama has, at best, a shaky grasp of fiscal reality.

[Danlar]

01:14 AM on 04/22/2012

the tea party GOP/norquisters are saying this: "FIRST I WILL QUIT MY SECOND JOB WHICH WILL FORCE ME TO CUT MY SPENDING LATER" does that make any sense to anyone especially now that Reaganomics has been debunked by GOPers like Greenspan who say "tax cuts do not pay for themselves" and the whole REAGANOMICS TEAM IS NOW CALLING FOR TAX INCREASES! nuts
Hatch and the TP SAY they care about Debt...However...Cantor just passed another tax cut...as if that will cut the debt..

[lifelongdemo]

01:55 PM on 04/21/2012

Hatch used the tea party to his advantage, now, reap what you sow

[nadohawk]

01:02 PM on 04/21/2012

Didn't the Tea Party movement start with voter dissatisfaction and protests back in September 2009? Obama promised too much during his campaigning and voters became resentful when the American economy began significantly backsliding after he became President (a combination of both the direction the economy was heading with the folding of certain Wall Street entities and incorrect government initiatives to address these issues).

A group of politicians stepped forward to lend a voice for that group and since these voters tended to not be that well-off financially, a group of wealthy donors helped to fund their campaigning. If you want to end the Tea Party, help the dissatisfied voters who sought help from them. Help them find work and help them to rebuild their lives instead of bickering with their elected representatives.

[lifelongdemo]

01:53 PM on 04/21/2012

Actually it was a couple of weeks after Pres. Obama assumed the Presidency. They started their "We want out country back" screech!.

[nadohawk]

02:06 PM on 04/21/2012

If you want to go that far back and call the January 24th protest of obesity taxes in New York state part of that movement.

[Wurkenstiff]

08:48 AM on 04/22/2012

Get a clue.
It started when Bush was in office after the bank bailouts.

[Jamgrae]

07:08 PM on 04/22/2012

The Tea Party started because Dick Armey and Jim DeMint got together to start a campaign to scuddle the Obama Presidency by building the Tea Party movement. The plan to not cooperate with the POTUS was fully orchestrated and set out to see that Obama was a one-term president. The GOP knew that Obama would be making regulations that would go against the will of their donars (Big Oil, Koch bros., etc), so whatever the POTUS was for...they would be immediately against. For example; the mandated health reform was championed by the Republicans (it being their idea) for at least 10 years prior to the Obama administration. When Obama embraced it for bi-partisanship (while denying the Democratic SURE PAY plan), the Republicans suddenly were against the mandated plan. Even Mitt Romney, who first used the plan because it was conservative, suddenly found the Obama plan unConstitutional. Solyndra, another Republican idea, when Obama embraced it, Repubicans blamed Obama for what they said was a stupid idea (an idea that GW Bush and the GOP spoke highly of even on Bush's last day in office. John McCain, who wanted the Dream Act to go through originally, suddenly hated it when Obama embraced it. It's not just Romney who can be compared to an "etch-o-sketch," it's the whole Republican Party.

[nadohawk]

10:23 PM on 04/22/2012

It was already started by the voters. They just saw their opportunity to get their way with those voters.

[tnana23boys]

11:09 AM on 04/21/2012

The GOP fed the tea party movement when it suited them. Now the tea party has a taste of power and they will devour what was once the Republican party. Will we see a new party form after this election cycle or before? Interesting times we live in.

[Tags]

10:55 AM on 04/21/2012

Guess what, teabaggers (so called because they mailed a lot of teabags) the Etch-A-Sketch was custom built for you and gets a shake right after the primaries are done.

[SitandStay]

10:51 AM on 04/21/2012

Utah citizens are just millions that vote for the same candidate that candidate in goose stepping synchronization.
No thinking allowed.
A vote for Nitt is a vote for the Koch brothers.

[They Call Me Mr Snark]

10:49 AM on 04/21/2012

FreedomWorks, a subsidiary of ALEC. That's all you need to know.

[yappy1953]

10:34 AM on 04/21/2012

Boehner gave power to the tea party pols that they didn't earn. In 2010, only 32% of TP candidates in nationwide elections won their races. Yet he was so so scared of having to use any Democratic votes to pass any bill, he pandered and caved.

While the Koch's might buy a few elections , the voters have repudiated the tea party (just look at 2011 Special Elections and Initiatives) and the real Republicans are finally mounting campaigs against them.

[Jamgrae]

07:16 PM on 04/22/2012

It may be too late for the Republicans to move against them, the monster that the GOP created has come to take over the party completely. Back in the 50s, when the GOP were strong, the John Birch Society (The Tea Party with another name) attempted to take over the party and the GOP at that time pushed them back almost immediately. Now, with the monster squad of Sarah Palin, Limbaugh and the Tea Party, moving against them will be considered treason. Sen. Hatch will probably be removed by the same entities that got rid of other Republicans like Charlie Frist and Arlen Spectre. Any Republican who dares cross the isles will have a long dive off a short pier.

[Peterjames54]

10:18 AM on 04/21/2012

Hatch's seat is safe. He'll rejoin the Senate in January except he'll be in the majority with Mitch running the Senate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKKwxdyg8pE

[SitandStay]

10:52 AM on 04/21/2012

In Utah, huh?

[ProgressivesLoveAmerica]

10:18 AM on 04/21/2012

Oh how nice!

I win for moderation and true bi-partisanship...

Oh wait a minute here...we're talking about the most conservative State in the Union replacing an already conservative Republican with someone even more extreme.

And then we wonder why nothing ever gets done. Gee, I wonder what's causing all the gridlock in Congress?

[DRouss3977]

10:12 AM on 04/21/2012

Orrin, after pandering to the TP for the past 2 years, see how they thank you? The GOP/TP cult is headed toward political oblivion after November. Even God couldn't pass the TP litmus test!

[CSKAP]

09:56 AM on 04/21/2012

The Tea Party has revealed a truth.
Republicans just throw money at politicians to force them to follow whatever they are told.
I didn’t agree with Sen. Hatch but I did think he voted what he believed.
It’s now apparent he’ll say whatever he is told to keep his job.

[branecoke]

09:55 AM on 04/21/2012

Freedom Works started by Dick Army and now being funded by Pacs handled by Karl Rove.
They are the organization behind the Tea Party. The party that has wrecked Washington DC so nothing is passed. A small amount of these people control Boehner and McConnell who live in fear of being tossed in their home states by money dumped into negative campaigns against them when they run again. The GOP is so divided and anyone thinking the TP is doing any good at all is delusional.

[Jamgrae]

07:25 PM on 04/22/2012

Actually, Jim DeMint AND Dick Armey established the Tea Party through funds by way of Freedom Works, which are funnelled in by the Koch Brothers (the REAL leader of the Tea Party). When Obama was elected, the Koch brothers knew he would foster regulations that would cut into their profits, so they,( through intermediaries ofcourse), started the movement. They are there to oppose everything the Obama Administration is for....when Obama leaves office, they will no longer be needed and will desolve.

[branecoke]

09:26 AM on 04/23/2012

Yes your background is very accurate but Karl Rove is now working hand in hand with them on Fox spewing his hate and keeping the division in society alive and well. There is no doubt why the TP was established but the real reason is racial and that is why you could be right about it not being funded after Obama leaves office in 2016.