SALT LAKE CITY – Tea Party power helped defeat a sitting Republican member of the Senate in May, but now that same energy is divided as Utah Republicans seek his replacement.
One of the founders of Utah’s Tea Party movement endorsed businessman Tim Bridgewater, while a national Tea Party group rallied voters to support his opponent in the GOP Senate primary.
Bridgewater’s endorsement by David Kirkham highlights a split in the loosely organized movement following three-term Sen. Bob Bennett’s defeat at the Republican state convention in May.
Bridgewater and attorney Mike Lee are facing off in a primary to replace Bennett on Tuesday. Both advanced to the primary by running to Bennett’s right, saying they would rein in federal spending.
Without an incumbent in the race and little to distinguish their platforms, Tea Party supporters have struggled to coalesce around a single candidate.
Both Lee and Bridgewater have support from those who identify with the Tea Party movement and local Tea Party groups have largely abstained from endorsing either candidate.
Lee, 38, has picked up the support of the California-based Tea Party Express, which is weighing in on primary races nationwide. Federal Election Commission reports show the group has spent $30,000 supporting Lee since Thursday, mostly on radio advertisements. FEC reports through June 2 show Bridgewater had spent about $350,000 on the race while Lee had spent about $300,000.
At the convention, Bridgewater won 57 percent of the vote — 3 percent more and he would have won the nomination outright. A Brigham Young University survey of convention delegates showed that 85 percent of delegates had a favorable impression of the Tea Party movement and 42 percent of delegates considered themselves active supporters of the movement.
The race between Lee and Bridgewater, the founder of a consulting firm specializing in emerging markets, has largely focused on their professional backgrounds.
Lee contends that as a constitutional scholar who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, he’s better suited to limit the role of government to what the country’s founders intended it to be. Bridgewater contends that his business background means he’s better suited to help create jobs.
Whoever wins the GOP nomination should cruise to victory in November in heavily Republican Utah. A Democrat hasn’t won a U.S. Senate race here since 1970.
