Going just on resume, Pat Shea, 46, may be the most impressive Senate candidate in years - Stanford University, where he was student body president; Rhodes scholar at Oxford University; Harvard Law School.
Shea worked five different times for the U.S. Senate, becoming chief counsel for the intelligence committee at one point. He's been Utah Democratic state chairman, national committeeman for Utah and 1992 gubernatorial candidate, where he lost in the primary.Upon his return to Utah after his Washington years, Shea worked for a large local law firm and was in-house counsel for KUTV Channel 2 for several years. More recently, he opened his own, small law firm.
Shea has pushed a number of issues this campaign, but his own ideas - while many and detailed - have fallen by the wayside as he stalked GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, trying to get debates and joint appearances.
In the end, Shea says Hatch has become a "stealth candidate." "One of the greatest failings of the campaign is that Orrin Hatch is not on the record for one thing that he would do in the 104th Congress or beyond. He has not taken a stand that he can be held accountable for."
While Hatch has touted his achievements for Utah, Shea points out that even with all his so-called clout in the U.S. Senate, the $2 million more that Hatch was able to bring Utah in federal public school monies "is less, for all our students, than he's raised and spent on his own campaign."