Outstanding news. Bob Bennett just suffered his first defeat in the Utah race.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett has suffered his first defeat of any kind in his hotly contested inter-party race for re-election.
At Friday night’s Cache County Republican Lincoln Day dinner, Bennett, who is finishing his third term as a senator from Utah, failed to get 40 percent of the 255 votes cast in a straw poll.
Bennett received 97 votes, finishing in second place to Mike Lee, who had 102. Tim Bridgewater finished third in the poll with 44 votes, Merrill Cook received six votes, Cherilyn Eagar had five and one vote was cast for no particular candidate.
The vote is symbolic in that at the Utah Republican Convention, a candidate needs 60 percent of the vote to skip a primary election. 62 percent of the votes cast Friday night were not for Bennett.
(SOURCE)
Bennett has thus far failed to get over 60% anywhere.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Bob Bennett can't buy enough votes?
arc_ut (Diary) Saturday, March 13th at 2:02PM EST (link)The 1st straw poll defeat was given by Cherilyn Eagar, who beat Bennett at the Utah County Straw poll last summer. Bennett was at the event and still came in 3rd place.
For this latest straw poll, you had to pay $1000 to be on the straw ballot, something not known in advance by some. Neither Cook or Eagar were on the ballot.
According to several there, Eagar gave the best speech of the night.
There were over 45 tables with an estimate of 350 to 375 who should have been able to vote. Approx. 100 didn’t vote. Many were not allowed to vote.
If Bennett doesn’t get 40%, on May 8th, he doesn’t even make a primary.
He hasn’t got 40% in the last 2 straw polls, no matter how many tables his campaign has bought.
Does anyone know how many tables the Lee campaign purchased for this event?
Great news
fpete13527 (Diary) Saturday, March 13th at 3:23PM EST (link)Go Mike Lee!!!
Momentum
utah_1 Saturday, March 13th at 3:57PM EST (link)I like Mike. He has the momentum, the organization, the endorsements from people like Erick, FreedomWorks and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and numerous Conservatives in Utah, and he has now proven that he has the support to beat the incumbent. This is now three votes in a row, the Box Elder Straw Poll, the iCaucus vote and now the Cache County Straw Poll, that show that Mike is far and away the strongest challenger to take down a three term liberal incumbent.
In Box Elder, he doubled up the number of votes of the nearest challenger, and if you added up all of the anti-Bennett votes, Mike would have had more than the 60% required to beat Bennett at convention.
Then came the iCaucus vote in which Mike too 58.9% of the vote. His nearest competitor received 15% less votes.
Then there comes the Cache County vote. Bennett’s first defeat in what will be a series of them.
I support Mike Lee to defeat Bob Bennett. He is going to do it and when he gets elected, he is going to help Senators like Jim DeMint get this country back on track.
Cherilyn Eagar got the URA endorsement
arc_ut (Diary) Saturday, March 13th at 7:29PM EST (link)Perhaps you forgot Utah Republican Assembly, where Cherilyn Eagar got 64% of the votes and was awarded their endorsement.
Also, iCaucus required 70% for an endorsement, something Lee didn’t get, so icaucus is currently backing 3 candidates, including the only one to get 100% on their vetting questions, Cherilyn Eagar
From Icaucus:
“A 70% consensus is required to achieve endorsement from the Independence Caucus, and while that consensus was not attained, the Independence Caucus has found all three candidates to be string fiscal conservatives who would adhere to constitutional authority.
“The next I-caucus vote for endorsement in the Utah Senate Race will be the week after the Utah convention.
“Until then, all I-caucus communications, videos, and efforts will be geared towards educating Utahn’s about why Bob Bennett needs to be defeated in 2010; and our official position is that any of the 3 vetted candidates (Tim Bridgewater, Cherilyn Eagar, and Mike Lee) would make excellent choices to replace Bob Bennett.”
URA?
utah_1 Sunday, March 14th at 10:16AM EST (link)Isn’t the URA stacked with Cherilyn supporters? Wasn’t it formed by Don Ruzicka? Isn’t Don, Gayle’s husband? Isn’t Gayle the one who got Cherilyn to run? Just checking.
As for iCaucus. I didn’t say they endorsed. I said Mike got almost 60% of the total vote proving he continues to be the one who garners the most support.
icaucus
arc_ut (Diary) Sunday, March 14th at 3:20PM EST (link)wasn’t Icaucus co-ounded by a Mike Lee supporter (Monte).
Wasn’t Icaucus being run by at one time by Lee supporters?
Didn’t Mike Lee speak with Monte several times last year?
If it wasn’t for the honor and ethics of co-founder Frank Anderson, Lee would have got the icaucus endorsement. He didn’t, so why are you trying to make it look like he did?
re: the “straw” poll:
http://news.hjnews.com/news/article_77091ffc-2e77-11df-92a3-001cc4c03286.html
Cache County GOP Chairman David James cautioned, however, that the poll is not scientific by any means.
Candidates got their name on the straw poll ballot by sponsoring a table for $1,000. Cook and Eagar did not sponsor a table and were not on the ballot for that reason.
Agreed on Mike Lee
jstanard Saturday, March 13th at 6:13PM EST (link)As stated, Mike Lee has the momentum to take this thing to the end. For only being “in” the campaign for just over 2 months, he’s quickly taking the lead.
I’ve seen them all speak many times, and Mike Lee is the candidate of choice. He clearly has the knowledge, passion, and ability to win this.
Utah needs Mike Lee. The United States needs Mike Lee, and many others like him.
I Like Mike!
I'd give Bridgewater a look...
Neil Stevens (Diary) Saturday, March 13th at 8:52PM EST (link)… but I think I have to prefer Lee to Bennett or Eagar.
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Tim Bridgewater really good
Cowboy (Diary) Saturday, March 13th at 10:06PM EST (link)Met him and his family at the county convetion I was a delegate at in 02. I remember him as young, great family and fairly new on the scene. Very personable. He was running for the 2nd district( Matheson) seat but came up short mainly because he was not well known at the time and the Matheson name carries Jim through to this day. This will end if he votes for Obamacare.
I must admit I don’t know much about Lee yet and will wait to see what comes out of the convention. What I know about the field at the moment Bridgewater would be my first choice.
Go Mike!
lordjeb Saturday, March 13th at 10:28PM EST (link)I’m happy to see that Bennett didn’t win this, and more importantly that Mike did. Utah needs a representative who knows and understands the Constitution, and Mike is the guy. I know that some of the other candidates have their good points as well, but I think that Mike Lee is the best of the bunch.
Utah does not want the current old senator
solutions Sunday, March 14th at 12:09AM EST (link)I have put a lot of effort into following what is going on in my state. I have attended several presentations where I have hear the candidate all speak. I like a few more than others. I have read the comments when there is an article on the KSL site. I have not found favorable comments about this old guy. The only support I see looks like special interest groups writing in from out of state. I am excited to see so much interest and desire to change the leadership in Washington.
I must agree….that is why I am for Lee!
Good news indeed! btw Republicans...
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Sunday, March 14th at 9:35AM EST (link)who have LARDED up our debt as well as Democrats should NOT feel any comfort in the primaries just because they suddenly found faith since the election of Obama!
Unified Patriots – How-To:
Activists Taking Action
$1,000 for the "right" to vote?
justcase Sunday, March 14th at 3:52PM EST (link)Let me get this straight. You had to pay $1,000 for the “right” to vote in Cache County’s straw poll? And this is the United States of America?
This just shows where and how candidates can be bought off. Even if Cherilyn did know of the “vote purchasing” idea, she would not have lowered her principles to allow her vote to be bought. Just like in Boxelder County where the same thing happened, but Cherilyn bucked the trend. If you want a clean candidate/Senator, she’s proven she’s the one.
I guess we now know what kind of candidates are running here.
not the right to vote, but the right to be voted
arc_ut (Diary) Sunday, March 14th at 6:08PM EST (link)re: Cache Valley, It wasn’t $1000 for the right to vote,
If you didn’t donate $1000 or more, to the county, the Cache Valley County Chair wouldn’t let you be named/listed on the ballot.
If that had been know by all, in advance, that would be one thing.
(A bad thing, but at least known). The lady running the event was out of town and the county chair tried to use the straw poll to create what he really wanted, more money.
Box Elder was upfront, and consistent. Yes, those that purchased tables had an advantage, and if you weigh that, Cherilyn did well there.
All 3.5 serious challengers look good to me
speckk Monday, March 15th at 2:18PM EST (link)At a meet the candidates event this weekend, it appeared that Bridgewater, Cook, Eager and Lee all have pretty similar platforms and views on the issues. Given Cook’s late entry, I count him as half a serious candidate, running on prior national experience.
Eager made me uncomfortable though. She seemed the most political of the group, and was all about sound bites and saying what people want to hear. It seems like she would be more pliable to meet the republican agenda (and we see what that did for our debt this decade), while the other candidates seemed more principles based.
Dept?
arc_ut (Diary) Tuesday, March 16th at 12:16AM EST (link)I think you will find that Eagar is the one spending the least, bringing in what she needs when she needs it and one of the few to pick up unused fliers at the event. She has Buy Your Own Lunch meetings (No Free Lunch). The way Bennett, Lee and Bridgewater are spending money, you think they would be more apt to save when they get in offiice?
Out of the Current Candidates, she was the only one that had filed by the Utah GOP State Convention last year
You also can look at her track record.
I believe that Cherilyn Eagar is the only one running who has supported and been active in fighting for conservative values for the last 30 years at the local, state, national and international level. [That includes Bennett]