After publicly dangling the prospect for months, GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz was set to announce Monday he won?t challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch next year, removing a menacing threat to the six-term senator?s reelection prospects.
Chaffetz told POLITICO he decided a costly, high-profile Senate campaign would detract from his policy goals ? namely curtailing government spending and helping return the country to a fiscally sustainable path.
Continue Reading?I can spend the next 15 months campaigning to do Orrin Hatch?s job, or I can just do my job,? Chaffetz said. ?There comes a point and a question: Do you want to spend all your time campaigning in a multimillion-dollar blood bath or do your job and be successful? Ultimately, I think that?s a path that makes the most sense for me.?
While Chaffetz?s decision caught many political watchers off guard, several Utah insiders said that the telegenic second-term congressman must have calculated that upending Hatch was no sure bet.
?He would be giving up a really good thing in the House to take a risk. Hatch has been very effective at making it hard for Chaffetz to raise money. He really turned up verbal communication to donors. I think it scared a lot of the potential money. I know several people who were willing to give Chaffetz money once he had the nomination but they were hesitant to do it before. They weren?t willing to write Hatch off,? said Jeff Hartley, a former executive director of the state party who worked on Hatch?s 1994 Senate campaign but also has assisted Chaffetz?s political efforts. ?I?m glad I won?t be conflicted.?
Influential tea party leader David Kirkham was stunned by the news. ?Wow, this is very, very, very surprising to me. Everyone told me he was running, from well-placed sources.?
?He had a lot of support, no doubt. My guess, is at the end of the day, he didn?t want to risk his House seat,? Kirkham said.
In a letter sent to GOP activists obtained by POLITICO, Chaffetz said his work in the House helped him settle on a decision last week.
?Despite being tempted to compete for the privilege of serving in the U.S. Senate ? and being convinced I could win ? I won?t allow a fight for that seat to distract me from what I was sent to Washington to do. I was sent here to help clean up the financial mess left by decades of fiscal mismanagement. That is a battle that cannot wait. It?s a battle that must be fought and won in the House and in the Senate,? he wrote.
Chaffetz said his work shepherding the conservative Cut, Cap and Balance legislation through the House proved that he doesn?t need seniority to get things done in the lower chamber.
Hatch?s campaign had been ramping up for a heated intra-party battle with Chaffetz. In recent weeks they?ve touted endorsements from conservative media personalities Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, and praise from Sarah Palin, as proof of the senator?s conservative bona fides.
But there?s no question the money disparity mattered.
Hatch had a record fundraising quarter in Utah, posting $3.4 million on hand at the end of June. Chaffetz had just $227,000 at the end of the same second quarter? the first tangible sign that a Senate run might not be in the cards.
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