Bennett losing delegate support in re-election bid?

A couple political observations this week, starting with the re-election bid of Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.

An analysis by Deseret News reporter Lee Davidson shows that only 20 percent of former GOP state delegates were re-elected in March Republican neighborhood caucuses.

That means upward of 80 percent of the delegates are new, or at least weren't delegates in 2008.

That has to be bad news for Bennett — some of his historic support is not there as he seeks a fourth six-year term.

Bennett is being bashed as not conservative enough by his political opponents.

I've always found that charge against Bennett rather odd. Not conservative enough for Utah? How do you get any further to the right? Jump off the right edge of the flat earth?

Should Bennett be defeated in the May 8 state GOP convention, or should he lose in a June Republican primary, one of the great ironies of his career will be that he was attacked for voting for the bank bailout in November 2008. But now the federal government may end up actually making money on that bailout, and so the federal deficit, which Bennett is also being blamed for, is actually narrowed because of the bailout.

GOP Gov. Gary Herbert vetoed only two bills — both minor matters — out of the hundreds passed by the 2010 Legislature. He signed all the controversial ones into law.

That keeps with Herbert's style of management — go slow. Maybe go even slower.

To say that Herbert has been cautious in office is an understatement.

After he wins the Republican nomination for governor in May, we'll see if he will step out a bit, stretch his legs, especially in the campaign against Salt Lake County Democratic Mayor Peter Corroon, who is running against Herbert this year.

I think we may have to give Stuart Reid the "Smartest Politician of the Year" award.

Reid has been a conservative Democrat for his public life, narrowly losing to Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden, in 2006 running as a Democrat.

But Reid switched parties in March, filing as a Republican against Greiner in Senate District 18. You see, Reid was following the news and betting that Greiner may be forced from office because of rulings that he violated the federal Hatch Act by being a government boss who oversees federal funds and then seeking a partisan political office. Greiner is the Ogden chief of police and oversees federal law enforcement grants.