Sen. Orrin Hatch fully expects to win his party's nomination Saturday in the state GOP convention, but for now he must put up with pesky constitutionalists who say Hatch has let Utahns and conservatives down.
Hatch, who seeks a fourth six-year term, points to his seniority and his ranking positions on several Senate committees as main reasons why Utahns should return him to Congress. Should Republicans take control of the U.S. Senate this year - and there's an outside chance of that - Hatch would become a committee chairman and, he says, be a power in the 100-member body. Even if Republicans remain in the minority, Hatch says Utah and the West can't afford to lose his conservative political voice.It's that seniority - his longevity in office - that Democrats are attacking. And his Republican opponents - Gil Majcher, Stephen Christian Heidt, Warren Hardy and Kent Butler - while not taken seriously by many GOP leaders, are saying the same thing about Hatch - that he's been in the Senate too long.
Majcher, a Salt Lake contractor and Navy reservist, was an admirer of Hatch until the Salt Lake County Convention last weekend. County party officials wouldn't let Majcher and the other challengers to Hatch speak. Hatch offered part of his convention speech time to his opponents, but said from the podium that county GOP officials wouldn't let him do that.
"If he has no sway with the county party," Majcher said. "How can he claim all this seniority and influence on our behalf in Washington? I hate to admit a mistake, but Orrin Hatch is not the man I thought he was, not the man to represent us." Majcher, 57, says that in 1976 - Hatch's first run for office against 18-year Democratic incumbent Sen. Frank Moss - Hatch spoke to Tooele County GOP leaders, among whom Maj-cher counted himself, and said Moss's three terms were enough. "Hatch said no one should serve longer than 18 years - now I just want to hold him to that," Majcher said.
Heidt also complained about not being able to speak at the county GOP convention, saying the action reeks of thought control and political elitism which Hatch has criticized Democrats for.
"I don't think (Hatch) is a moderate, even a liberal Republican. What he's been doing (in the Senate) the past years he looks more like a Democrat to me," said Heidt, a 36-year-old pharmacy technician from Magna.
All five candidates will speak at the state convention held in the University of Utah's Huntsman Center, the only convention where delegates vote on them. In addition, as a sitting senator Hatch will be invited to speak during a "report from Congress" section of the program, said GOP state Chairman Bruce Hough. Hatch, 60, expects to get at least 70 percent of the 2,500 delegates' votes, which would award him the party nomination without a primary election.
Feeling pressure from the political right, Hatch has used some of his county convention speeches to talk about the Constitution, his love and respect for it. In fact, Hatch says considering what Democratic President Bill Clinton and other Democrats want to do with the Constitution is one reason he's running again - to defend a conservative's approach to the Constitution.
"How can he say that?" Heidt said. "He voted to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsberg - by everyone's admission one of the most liberal judges around, a judge who advocates that the U.S. Supreme Court can amend the Constitution itself."
Hatch favors a constitutional convention as a way to force Congress to adopt a balanced budget amendment. That proves Hatch's true colors, Hardy said. "That is the main reason - and there are many - why Orrin Hatch shouldn't be re-elected," said Hardy, 60, a self-employed technical writer and researcher from Provo. "Hatch has actually been voting in ways that are detrimental to our form of government - he wants a constitutional convention where liberals could strip us of our sacred rights; he voted for a United Nations treaty that allows Americans to be tried overseas; he voted for NAFTA, which Henry Kissinger said was an important step for the New World Order; and he votes for national crime, welfare and education acts that clearly take away the powers of the states."
Butler, a 36-year-old electrical engineer from Santaquin, also considers himself a constitutionalist. But his gripe with Hatch is the continued federal budget deficit. "I want to be elected and fight for the rights of honest, hard and smart working citizens who are tired of seeing the budget deficit increase, spending increase and liberty decrease," Butler said.
Eventually, Butler wants to greatly reduce the tax burden on Americans "so that the average American family can live on one income and not be required to send mother into the work force and the children to the day-care center in order to make ends meet."
Tomorrow: U.S. House races in the state GOP convention.