Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, extended some amazing streaks for his party, his family and himself as he cruised to a landslide re-election Tuesday over Democrat Scott Leckman, 64 percent to 33 percent.
For example, Republicans now have not lost a U.S. Senate race in Utah since 1970, when former Sen. Ted Moss, D-Utah, won his last term. Republicans have now won nine straight Senate races in the 28 years since then.Even worse, if possible, for Democrats is that their last five Senate nominees have now failed to win more than 40 percent of the vote.
Bennett's win Tuesday also means that after his upcoming six-year term, his family will have represented Utah for 36 of the past 54 years. Bennett's father, former Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, R-Utah, served from 1951 to 1975.
A personal streak that Bennett kept alive is that he is undefeated in the two races he has waged. (And counting his father's terms, the Bennett family is now also six for six in races for the Senate.)
"It's awfully hard to beat an incumbent statewide in either party if the incumbent works at it. I tried to work at it so as to not be vulnerable," Bennett said.
That included raising 10 times more money than Leckman - $2.77 million to $221,329. That prompted Leckman to call for campaign finance reform and to campaign saying a big heart and big ideas are more important than a big wallet. "But I always knew it was a long shot," Leckman said.
Leckman - who has now lost two political races, including a state Senate race four years ago - said he has no regrets. "I'm very proud of what we accomplished. I believe we raised a general discussion about the issues that was critical."
He added, "I think we won on the issues," from education and crime to early childhood intervention. But he said he felt that distracting from that was controversy over President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
"We only had a short time when people were focusing on the issues, and that was a major distraction," he said. Leckman adds that he plans to continue to be involved in politics but is unsure whether he will run again for office.
Meanwhile, Bennett is looking forward to more seniority and power. Defeat of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., helped bump Bennett up in seniority two spots - meaning he will have his pick of several subcommittee chairmanships there, but he says he may prefer to keep one he has now overseeing technology and banking.
Also, Bennett said post-election shuffling could make him chairman of the powerful Senate Ap-propriations Subcommittee on Transportation - which could help in annual battles for highway money - but he said that is probably only a long-shot.