Poll: Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) in deep trouble with GOP voters

[ccharles000]

So, why is Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff so confident that Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) is on track to lose at the state GOP convention on May 8? I got an early look at a survey of state GOP delegates conducted by a Utah firm. It's not pretty.

When more than 1,000 delegates were polled on their choices in the Senate race, only 15 percent chose Bennett. When asked for a second choice, only 5 percent picked Bennett. In the first test, he's barely in the top three, which raises the possibility of the three-term senator getting knocked out of the convention in the first round of voting. The frontrunner is Mike Lee, a first-time candidate who gets 35 percent of first-choice votes and 22 percent of second-choice votes.

"Mike Lee is the frontunner," said Chuck Warren, a Utah political consultant whose Silver Bullet firm conducted the poll. "He's the only one I see who can get to 60 percent at the convention."

Why does the 60 percent number matter? Theoretically, Bennett can lose at the convention and win the GOP primary in June. Indeed, that's what former congressman Chris Cannon did in 2006. But if a candidate gets to 60 percent in several rounds of voting, he is the nominee -- there's no primary. The best hope for Bennett might be surviving to the final round and holding Lee to 59 percent in a two-way race.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/04/poll_sen_bob_bennett_r-utah_in.html

[BunkerHill24]

1. Halallujah!

[WI_DEM]

2. The GOP will still win the senate seat and I'm sure that whoever the repub is will be just as bad.

[PopSixSquish]

3. In What Bizarro World is Bob Bennett Not Conservative Enough for Utah Republicans?

I don't even want to think about who (or what)makes up that 35% of convention delegates.

I guess the old saying is true, that if you live long enough, you see everything...

[LoKnLoD]

4. Wish it was Hatch on the way out.

Hatch is 100 times worse than Bennett.

[Ter]

5. Hatch is a police state Republican

Those are the worst kind.

[totodeinhere]

6. They will elect a right wing GOP senator, either Bennett or one of the others.

So to me it doesn't really matter.