Rep. Chaffetz to decide on Hatch challenge by fall of next year

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who is eyeing a 2012
bid against Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), said he will likely make a
decision to run for the upper chamber by the fall of next year.

Chaffetz has high approval ratings in Utah and is seen as a major
threat to Hatch, who voted for the controversial 2008 Troubled Asset
Relief Program (TARP).

{mosads}Hatch, meanwhile, says he isn’t afraid to have
his 2012 reelection bid judged by the same Utah Republican activists who
ousted his longtime GOP colleague Bob Bennett this month.

Hatch, a senator since 1977, disavowed any unease with the state’s unusual
nominating rules or any possibility that he would run as an independent or
write-in candidate in light of Bennett’s political demise.

Asked about the process’s fairness, Hatch said
he plans no divergence from his usual reelection strategy.

“I’ve been going through it for 34 years,” Hatch told The Hill. “These are our
people. I can’t judge [the fairness]. If that’s what our folks want to do, I’ll
be the first to stand up for them… I’m planning on winning those delegates
over, and I think we will.”

On May 8, Bennett was defeated in his bid for a third term at the Utah
Republican Convention, finishing third in a second round of voting. Under the
state’s nominating rules, Senate nominees are chosen by 3,500 delegates
who are picked by party caucuses. On Thursday, Bennett ruled out a write-in
campaign.

Chaffetz
considered running against Bennett, but opted to run for reelection in
the lower chamber. The Utah congressman said he was taking one election
at a time and will wait until next year to make a decision about the
Senate.

In 2008, Chaffetz defeated then-Rep. Chris
Cannon (R-Utah) in a primary by 20 points. Cannon was endorsed by
President George W. Bush as well as Bennett and Hatch.

Noting those endorsements, Chaffetz recently told The Hill, “I don’t owe [the establishment] anything.”

Like Hatch, Bennett voted for the the TARP. Bennett also attracted
criticism for his immigration votes and a healthcare reform plan he
crafted with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

A longtime close friend of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.),
Hatch has a record of bipartisanship despite his
conservative roots. He has
supported stem cell research, being one of 58 senators who asked  Bush
to ease federal restrictions on the practice, and has worked
closely with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), one of the House’s most
liberal
members. The two men wrote the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act, which authorized and
regulated generic drugs, and with Kennedy, Hatch worked on a wide range of
topics including medical research, healthcare reform, children’s healthcare,
bioterrorism and rights for the disabled.

In a 2009 survey by The Hill, Hatch was cited by Senate Democrats as one of the
easiest GOP senators to work with. When asked his opinion on the easiest
Democrats to legislate with, Hatch cited Kennedy and Waxman.

Although he won reelection in 2006 with 62 percent and in 2000 with 66
percent, Hatch acknowledged that the nominating process those years was
“rough.”

“I’ve been through it six times, and the last two times have been rough. On the
other hand, I’ve learned a lot from that, too.”

Hatch said his vote for the TARP proposal in 2008 as a critical
and necessary decision: “That irritated everybody, but on the other hand people are starting to come to
the conclusion… that if we hadn’t done that, we would have had five or six
months without anything being done. We’d be in a doggone depression. It was all
we had at that particular time.

“If I’d had it to do over, I’d have made them rewrite that bill. I would have
made them meet certain standards that were not met in those circumstances. But
all of us knew it was a big problem and all of us knew it was something that
had to be done. The adults had to vote for it, that’s all there was to it.”