Veteran Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, not only won likely re-election this week, the self-described “tough old bird” survived a Tea Party assault of the type that has sent other Republican veterans packing in recent years.
Unlike longtime Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Bob Bennett, a fellow Utahn, Hatch had the strategy and resources to defeat his Tea Party-backed challenger. In this case, that was former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist, who had forced Hatch into a primary runoff election for the first time in the six-term incumbent's Senate tenure.
Taking to heart the lessons of Bennett's defeat two years ago, Hatch did three things that helped him survive in conservative Utah — lessons that likely will be heeded by others in office labeled “RINO” (Republican in Name Only) by Tea Partiers looking to challenge voting records and what are viewed as the sins of incumbency:
n He polished his conservative credentials, boosting his lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 89 percent to 100 percent in 2010 and 2011, downplaying his reputation for working with Democrats (including the late Sen. Edward Kennedy) while emphasizing what Tea Party critics called a newfound concern with federal debt and deficits.
n He amassed a huge campaign war chest, spending some $10 million on his re-election bid — 10 times what Liljenquist was able to collect and spend.
n And he avoided television debates with his much younger Republican opponent, which limited their face-to-face encounters to a single radio debate.
Liljenquist had the backing of Tea Party powerhouse FreedomWorks for America, which had spent some $900,000 trying to defeat Hatch, and his reputation for having taken on public employee unions resonated with many conservatives. His main line of attack was that Hatch was guilty of “fiscal child abuse” against future generations by failing as a senior Republican to tackle the national debt.
Hatch denied the charge, and he did not hesitate to brand FreedomWorks as out-of-staters and “the sleaziest bunch I've ever seen in my life.”
