Democrat Pat Shea says he's found this week that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has created a lot of adversaries, including President Clinton, who are excited to see Shea running.
"We had dinner with the president Monday night" with other Democratic Senate challengers from around the nation, Shea said."He said Utah has a great delegation in the House (with Democratic Reps. Karen Shepherd and Bill Orton), but we could use a Democrat in the Senate as well," he said.
Also, as Shea made the rounds of political action groups to seek donations, he said he found "a number of people involved in the Clarence Thomas hearings, BCCI (the Bank of Commerce and Credit International probe), or Iran-Contra are upset with Hatch. They are ready-made groups ready to oppose him."
He said such groups told him they feel Hatch may be vulnerable because of high negative numbers in polls (even though Hatch leads Shea by more than 30 points) and promised to evaluate Shea's campaign for possible donations. Shea trails Hatch greatly in the amount of money raised so far.
One of Shea's old bosses - former Senate majority leader and Japanese ambassador Mike Mansfield, for whom Shea was an aide - also told Shea he appears to be running a good campaign.
"He said the keys to a good campaign are short speeches and wearing out your shoe leather," Shea said. "Ironically, I found that morning I had worn a hole in my shoe. I showed him, and he said I must be running a good campaign."
While in Washington, Shea said he had five meetings with top White House aides on topics ranging from health-care reform to the crime bill and said he particularly discussed economic development opportunities and the importance to Utah of Hill Air Force Base, which faces possible closure.
Shea said he supports the crime bill. He opposes mandating employers to pay for health insurance but supports administration proposals for making coverage universal and portable.