Posted on 11/06/2009 4:21:55 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
A personal crisis put Mark Shurtleff's political aspirations on hold, as the attorney general abandoned his bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Wednesday to help care for a troubled daughter.
"The Senate race has to give. My family has to come first. My daughter has to come first," Shurtleff said.
The departure of the strongest challenger to U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett unexpectedly jolted the GOP Senate field and created an opening in the still-fluid race that may be seized by any of several potential candidates.
"I do think there will be some others who will take a look at it," said Utah Republican Party Chairman Dave Hansen, naming Rep. Jason Chaffetz, attorney Mike Lee and businessman Fred Lampropoulos as possible challengers. "They'll have to make that decision whether they get into it and there will probably be a number of others."
Shurtleff abruptly announced he was dropping out of the race on Wednesday, saying his 17-year-old adopted daughter, Danielle, was dealing with mental health issues and needed family support.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Robert Bennett is a RINO Senator from the most conservative state in the union. Conservatives need to oust him.
I beg your pardon. Oklahoma claims most conservative status as the Obama/Biden ticket could not win a single county in our state.
Unlike NY-23 and the Florida Senate seat, Bennett is an entrenched incumbent. It will be very hard to primary him.
“Oklahoma claims most conservative status as the Obama/Biden ticket could not win a single county in our state.”
I stand corrected. But in a state as conservative as Utah, we should have a conservative Republican representing it in the Senate.
Utah has an unusual selection process. There is a state party convention. Candidates seek delegates until there are only two left. The top two finishers face off in a primary. If the top finisher gets 60% or better, he or she is the nominee.
This is do-able.
Utah has the same disease that South Carolina has. You can’t win there as a Dem, so they all switch to Republican and drive the party to the left. After a while, you can’t really tell the difference anymore.
My litmus test is that if an elected official thinks that cow farts are destroying the planet or that a gas that is necessary for all life on earth is a pollutant, they need to be sent home.
Good, Shurtleff was too pro-illegals.
Congressman Chaffetz or Ex-Gov’s Leavitt’s brother may run.
Get er-done!
Trouble in Paradise ?
We need another Jake Garn.
Shame on him and every other Republican in leadership in Utah. Get rid of them all.
Tell that to Chris Cannon.
Agreed. But who will take him out? Despite Utah being a solid....and I mean SOLID....Republican state...there doesn’t seem to be a deep bench of principled conservative leaders. I suppose Chavetz is good, but he just got elected to the House.
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