Bennett fighting Senate challengers with big $$

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is spending big money to fight off a flock of challengers — about $383,000 in the final quarter last year, and more than $2 million in the election cycle so far.

Combined, all of his current challengers reported spending only about $54,000 in that last quarter (an eighth as much as Bennett), and roughly $85,000 for the cycle (about 4 percent of Bennett's total), according to year-end disclosure statements candidates just filed with the Federal Election Commission.

To counter such spending, Tim Bridgewater — a millionaire entrepreneur who is one of Bennett's conservative GOP challengers — loaned his campaign nearly $277,000 out of his own pocket to use as the race starts to heat up.

"Special interest money from Washington will ensure that Bob Bennett is also well-funded, but we'll have the grass-roots network on our side," Bridgewater said.

Bennett reported raising $398,000 in the last quarter of 2009 — and only 1 percent of it came from donors with addresses in Utah. About an eighth of it came from the financial industry likely interested in his role in the Senate Banking Committee. (Conservative challengers have criticized Bennett's support of a bailout for that industry in 2008.)

Also, Bennett received $42,600 from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the arm of the GOP that supports U.S. Senate candidates. It tends to help incumbents because its fundraising and spending is overseen by incumbent senators.

"I recognize I need to run as good of a race as I have ever run," Bennett told the Deseret News recently about why he is raising and spending so much money. He said he must take all of his challengers seriously.

But, he said, "I now have a year's head start on all of my competitors because none of them has been organizing except for the last month or two. (Utah Attorney General) Mark Shurtleff started organizing early, but he's gone now," having dropped out of the race to help a daughter struggling with depression.

Bennett said with his early work, "We have thousands of people who have signed up to become potential delegates for Bennett. And we're adding to that list several hundred every week. So we're doing pretty good."

Delegates to party conventions will be elected at caucuses next month. If a candidate receives 60 percent of the vote at the state convention, he or she proceeds directly to the general election; otherwise, the top two candidates face off in a primary.