Senate duo among eldest

WASHINGTON — Although Utah boasts the youngest population in the nation, come January Utah's senatorial delegation will be among the oldest.

Utah's two Republican senators, Orrin Hatch and newly re-elected Bob Bennett, are 70 and 71, respectively. At a combined 141 years, that makes the senatorial delegation the third oldest among the 50 delegations in the 109th Congress.

The combined age of the Utah senators is still far behind the Hawaii delegation, where both senators are 80, and it is less than West Virginia, where 87-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd skews the average (the other West Virginia senator is 67).

"Age hasn't become an issue for me yet," said Bennett, who will be 77 at the end of his term. "I had a stress test a couple months ago, and the doctor told me to come back in 10 years. With a little help from (the cholesterol medication) Lipitor, there are no signs of any problems."

Bennett has seen some colleagues in the Senate stay too long. But there are just as many who are going strong into their 80s. And he hinted there is no reason — at least not in the genetic history of his family — to suggest that he would be too old to run for another term.

His mother lived to be 96. His father, former U.S. Sen. Wallace Bennett, lived to be 95 and was mentally "with it" until a fall at age 92.

Hatch and Bennett are not alone in their senior status. A total of 21 senators are 70 or older, and five of those are in their 80s.

Bennett would still be a young buck compared to senators like Byrd and the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a North Carolina Republican who, still in office and notoriously senile, died in 2002 at the age of 100.

The average age of U.S. senators has been creeping up steadily and now averages 60, according to demographic data compiled by the Senate staff for the 108th Congress that just ended.

The average age of House members is 55, and in that regard, Utah's House members are a little below average. Rep. Chris Cannon is 53, as is Rep. Rob Bishop, and Rep. Jim Matheson is 44.

Generation gap?

Neil Howe, an author, historian and economist who has examined the cyclical nature of generations on the political landscape throughout the years, believes it will be harder for Utah's senior senators to relate to younger generations, in particular what he calls the Millennial Generation now coming of age.