Hatch prevails in Utah GOP primary

SALT LAKE CITY -- Sen. Orrin Hatch won the GOP primary in Utah Tuesday night, handily turning back a challenge from tea party forces hoping to jolt the Republican Party again by defeating an incumbent who occasionally strayed from the movement's focus on shrinking the federal government.

Hatch's race was the premier event as several states held primaries yesterday.

A few months ago, Hatch was considered vulnerable -- like his former Republican colleague Robert Bennett, who was booted from the Senate two years ago at the Utah nominating convention, and six-term Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who lost in last month's Indiana GOP primary.

But more recently, Hatch, 78, was viewed as the heavy favorite in the matchup against former state Sen. Daniel Liljenquist. Hatch enjoyed a huge resource advantage that let him unleash the most expensive and detailed campaign operation in Utah's history.

Hatch raised about $10 million, and that allowed the campaign to contact thousands of voters individually and to spread two messages on the airways: He has the backing of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and his seniority on the Senate Finance Committee would benefit the state.

Liljenquist, 37, is a relative newcomer to the Utah political scene. He enjoyed recognition for leading efforts to overhaul the pension system for the state's employees during his first term as a legislator. Instead of opting to rise through the state's political ranks, he chose to take on the state's best-known political figure.

Liljenquist seized on voters' concerns about the growing national debt and tried to make the case that Hatch has been a major contributor to that policy by voting continually to raise the federal debt ceiling, supporting a Medicare drug benefit and working with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to establish the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Utah has a unique nominating system, and Hatch was widely viewed as most vulnerable when about 4,000 GOP stalwarts gathered at the state's nominating convention in April.

Delegates at the convention tend to be more conservative than the GOP electorate. The Hatch campaign team spent months behind the scenes trying to generate a new crop of delegates to the convention, and that work paid off, with the large majority of this year's delegates being new to the process.

As the winner Tuesday, Hatch is the huge favorite to win in November against Democratic candidate Scott Howell.