If Utah Elects Its First Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 40 Years, Thank the Tea Party

Tea Partiers weren't the only ones happy to see Sen. Bob Bennett lose Utah's Republican nomination on Saturday: plenty of Democrats in the state were elated as well. Why? Because even though the 3,500 delegates in Utah's GOP convention didn't like Bennett, the majority of the electorate still did. Polling suggests that if the three-term incumbent had secured the nomination, voters almost certainly would have sent him back to Washington.

Alas, in the anti-establishment fury that dictates conservative politics these days, Tea Party activists got organized, attended the caucuses and got themselves elected to be the nominating delegates. The result is a Republican primary between two ultraconservatives who will be racing even further to the right over the next six weeks. When the dust settles, Democrats hope the candidate who emerges will be too conservative even for Utah's voters.

Marla Kennedy, who manages the campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sam Granato, told NEWSWEEK the Tea Party had "hijacked" the GOP convention, leaving moderate Republicans nowhere to go.

"We're hoping those who feel disenfranchised will come over and vote for Sam Granato," Kennedy said, adding that the two remaining Republican candidates are "gonna have to run righter, and that only benefits our campaign." 

Of course, it would take something of a perfect storm to get the reddest state in the union to elect a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, but for her part, Kennedy can already see the clouds forming over the GOP. If the Tea Party continues to flex its muscle in Republican primaries nationwide (Florida, anyone?), she says the party could end up with a bunch of unelectable right-wingers who alienate moderates and independents. "They will have nowhere else to go other than the Democrats," Kennedy said. "And we'll welcome every last one of them."