Delegates don't like Sen. Bob Bennett, but poll says voters do

SALT LAKE CITY — What will happen to U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett?

That's the key question for Republicans meeting Saturday in their candidate-nominating convention at the Salt Palace.

Seven conservative GOP challengers — who all contend that Bennett is not conservative enough for Utah — hope to eliminate the three-term incumbent there. Delegate polls show they may. Recent polls have shown Bennett trailing attorney Mike Lee among delegates, and some show him also trailing entrepreneur Tim Bridgewater.

But Bennett — who polls show is still favored by a plurality of all Utah voters, if not GOP delegates — is optimistic that he will survive.

"Our sense of things is that instead of crystallizing (behind one candidate), as often happens in the last few days, the race is actually opening up and becoming more fluid," Bennett told the Deseret News.

"More and more delegates who announced themselves as committed to one candidate or the other are now saying, 'Maybe we are not so committed, we're going to make up our mind at the convention.' We feel that can only be good for us," he said.

Bennett said polls have shown that his delegates are the most committed, "so if there is a sense of re-evaluation, it's coming from among those who felt committed to the other candidates and are giving it a second thought. So we are feeling more confident now than we were a week ago."

Poll-leading Lee, however, says he is not seeing the fluid movement Bennett claims, "but anything can happen in the final 48 hours, and he's been on a real media blitz."

Lee said as he talks about returning to the original intent of the Constitution and that Congress ignored it to allow government to become too big and expensive, "that is a message that resonates with people." By staying on that message, he said, "I feel my strength is increasing."

He said he also feels "this year's delegates are a well-informed group that has worked hard to know each of the candidates. I have faith and confidence in this system."

Survival may come down to the showing candidates make at the convention itself. Bennett plans a big splash — and will be introduced by Mitt Romney, the wildly popular-in-Utah chief of the 2002 Olympics and former U.S. presidential candidate.