Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon News

Warren Beatty spurns media suitors
The actor says a campaign in 2000 would be "nutty," but won't rule out a future run.
By Anthony York
[11/04/99]

San Francisco's "Blair Witch" mayor's race
Gay supervisor Tom Ammiano's insurgent write-in campaign will likely force incumbent Willie Brown into a runoff.
By Anthony York
[11/04/99]

The Silicon Dominion skews right
Virginia's booming high-tech industry helps the GOP wrest control of the state government away from the Democrats for the first time in history.
By Alicia Montgomery
[11/03/99]

Philly's IOU mayor
With so many political favors to return after his anemic victory in Philadelphia, will John F. Street turn City Hall into a house of cards?
By Howard Altman
[11/03/99]

Dollar Bill's dollar bills
After leaving the Senate, Bill Bradley built up a network of supporters in the private sector who are now helping to finance his surprise challenge to Al Gore.
By Jake Tapper
[11/03/99]

Complete archives for News

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"His presidential campaign has been an embarrassment," says a longtime Hatch insider who asked not to be named so he could dole out some tough love to the Judiciary Committee chairman. "He said when he first got into it that if he got in and wasn't a contender he'd get out. Well, it's painfully clear to everyone that he's not in the race. So he needs to get out and run for the Senate. He needs to do what he promised he would do if he wasn't a contender: get out of the presidential race and tend to business at home."

"A lot of his constituents here and some of his supporters wonder what he's doing," says Shia Kapos, the government editor of the Salt Lake Tribune. "He's low in the polls, he has no money -- they say, 'Why is he staying in the race?'"

"I don't know the reason," Hatch's sister, Marilyn "Nubs" Kuch, told the paper. "Maybe he just thinks things will work out somehow."

That Hatch's presidential aspirations seem hopeless isn't the real problem. The problem is that the way Hatch's campaign is being run -- not by Hatch's usual, Utah-based supporters -- is now actually making him some enemies back home.

Kapos says that Hatch has upset some big-wig Utah Republicans who wish they could hitch themselves to the stars of Texas Gov. George W. Bush or Arizona Sen. John McCain, but are refraining out of a politeness that is reaching its limits. They suffered through months of Hatch's Hamlet-ish decision making before he finally threw his hat into the ring at the beginning of July. Now they're forced into wallflower status while Bush and McCain's dance cards are filled by their counterparts from other states.

Indeed, Hatch's presence has created some weird moments for his fellow Utah Republicans. Not wanting to completely squander his bets on the sickliest of long-shot racehorses, the junior senator from Utah, Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, went to the ridiculous length of endorsing both Hatch and Elizabeth Dole. Now he's stuck in the desert with just Hatch, of course, though Bennett's made it pretty clear that he longs to be at the Bush oasis.

Last week, after the GOP town meeting at Dartmouth College, Hatch acknowledged that his July 1 declaration of candidacy wasn't just "a day late and a dollar short," but "two days late and $36 million short," a reference to the fat bankroll of Republican front-runner Bush. (Bush's bankroll is now almost twice that, of course.)

Hatch seized on that number when he threw his hat into the ring, saying he'd make up the difference by collecting 1 million contributions of $36 apiece. While Bush was going after "fat cats," Hatch said, he'd pursue "skinny cats."

But last week, when I asked him how that was going, Hatch said his campaign had raised "over $500,000 right now, including $60,000 from people who had logged on to his Web site." Assuming each of those donations was in $36 increments, that's still only 13,889 contributions -- 986,111 skinny cats short.

Next page | He's spent over $1 million -- on what?