Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., head of the Senate Conservatives Fund, has backed Mike Lee in the Utah GOP Senate primary that is being held tomorrow to replace Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. You will recall that the incumbent Bennett was bounced when he failed to finish in the top two at the state convention.

But one of Bennett’s former staffers, a lobbyist named Tim Stewart, is still at the heart of a major controversy in the runoff — a false-flag operation that occurred on the eve of the convention. Delegates received a mailer purportedly supporting Lee but in fact designed to make Lee look bad. The mailer used the image of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake, and insinuated that Bennett was a bad Mormon, in contrast with Lee. Lee’s supporters believe that the mailer,  sent by a shady, unregistered group, might have cost him support at convention, where he finished with 44 percent to Bridgewater’s 57 percent.