During a guest-speaking appearance on Saturday, as a as part of an Independence Caucus training program, Mike Lee told the audience he will be announcing his candidacy for the Senate in a couple of weeks.
After his presentation on “Defending and protecting the US Constitution, Mr. Lee fielded questions from those in his presentation. When asked if he ever considered running for the Senate he replied he has and “I will be announcing in a couple of weeks, thanks for asking.” For those involved in the Utah GOP this will not be a surprise but a relief they will no longer have to wonder if he is running or not.
According to the report in the Deseret News, December 1st, “Jim Bennett added, "For well over a year, we've been focused solely on the Republican State Convention next May, and no candidate will be able to match the size and scope of our organization." Sen. Bennett spent a huge $545,000 from July through September this year on that organization to court delegates, forms showed recently.” (Lee Davidson).
Also in his report Mr. Davidson showed Bennett with a significant lead against other candidates yet overall “just 27 percent favored his re-election and 58 percent wanted someone new.” Someone new this coming year means there is a growing list of candidates on the GOP ticket so the March 23rd caucus meetings will be critical.
Mike Lee will be joining James Williams III, Cherilyn Eager, and Timothy Bridgewater. For those wanting someone who favors the Constitution, and will uphold their oath of office, it is usually difficult to find. Yet each of the four candidates above all claim to be running on Constitutional principles and each were at yesterday's event. This is something Jim Bennett and his father may not be prepared for and all their money may not overcome.
Despite Mitt Romney helping raise money for Sen. Bennett, claiming we need his experience in Washington D.C., most know Sen. Bennett cares little for the original intent. His proposed 'Healthy Americans Act' completely ignores the founding, supreme law of the land and savvy delegates know it. Is Mike Lee the answer to name recognition? Perhaps yet each of the other three cannot be counted out this early. Between now and May there will be many interesting surprises with the caucus meetings more important than ever. Of course, there is also the Democrat, Sam Granato but based on his campaign site it is hard to tell what principles he is running on.
NOTE: Each candidate who had a website to visit is linked above as well as a link to the disaster of a health plan Sen. Bennett supports and the Independence Caucus website. 2010 is more important than ever so research and prepare to cast an educated vote in your caucus meetings and at the polls. There will be articles on all candidates coming in the future. Also, those candidates that accept our invitation will be a guest on our Saturday, Freedom is Rising radio show where listeners can ask questions by calling in live or participating in a live chat during the shows. (James Williams appeared September 11thand you can listen to the archive and we will try to schedule him in the future as well.)
Comments
It is somewhat disappointing that at his first cottage meeting, about a year ago in Mapleton, which I attended, he was asked the same question about running for Senator and gave the same response--that he would announce whether he was going to run or not in "two weeks". Months ago, I gave up waiting. I've already had enough of indecisive, over-promising politicians.
It seems to me that James Williams and Cherilyn Eagar both have a more principled understanding of the constitution, and Tim Bridgewater has a proven track record as a conservative (if you can forgive him for being an early and ardent supporter of McCain for president!).
Any of those three would be a huge improvement over Bennett. I'm not sure that Mike Lee would be much of an improvement. Hopefully, whenever he does actually announce, Mike Lee will decide that there's no need for him to enter, and that it's too late to bother.
--Dave Duncan
I would agree with the above comment. The field is already crowded and quite frankly, if I were a Bennett fan I would be cheering for a more crowded race. If we as conservatives don't research and get behind the strongest and best-suited candidate running against Bennett, the delegate vote will be split in many different directions and Bennett will ultimately win another term.
I agree with Emily that we conservatives "must research and get behind the strongest and best-suited candidate running against Bennett." Frankly, all this early protest against Mike Lee has me puzzled. Why are we trying to stifle a man who might be the best? If he's not the strongest and best-suited, that will come out. But if he is, do we want to discount him and push him out of the race? I'm not saying he is, I don't know him well enough yet, but it seems to me that this race is important enough that we owe it to our country to look at all potential candidates and accept or reject him or her based on qualifications, not on when they chose to enter the race.
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