Bob Bennett, the Tea Party and earmarks

Utah Republicans rejected incumbent Senator Robert Bennett at a state convention on Saturday, in favor of Mike Lee, an attorney backed by the Tea Party movement, and Tim Bridgewater, a businessman.  Lee and Bridgewater will face off against each other in the Republican primary in June 22. 

What will Bennett’s defeat mean for Utah?  Well with respect to earmarks, Utah will suffer when Bennett leaves the Senate at the end of his current term.  Bennett was the top Republican on the Energy and Water Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  He was also a member of the Defense Subcommittee, and used this position aggressively to fight for funding for Utah earmark projects.  The next Senator from Utah will certainly not have the same clout as Bennett, who’s served in the Senate since 1993.  And if the Tea Party candidate is eventually elected, you can expect that he will swear off earmarks altogether. 

Another consequence is that earmarks will continue to be an issue that Tea Party insurgents within the Republican party will use to try to take down incumbents.  While most of the anger against Bennett was directed against his vote in favor of the TARP bailout of the banks, his record bringing back earmarks for Utah was used to tarnish his image as a fiscal conservative. 

However, it would probably be a mistake to exaggerate the Tea Party’s actual influence within the Republican party at this point.  Utah has an unusual nominating process that allows activist groups like the Tea Party greater impact.  As Politico has noted, if Bennett had been able to take his case to the larger pool of Republican voters statewide, he probably would have done much better as indicated pre-convention polls in Utah.