Things are looking up for Republican Bob Bennett, as the field of would-be claimants to his U.S. Senate seat grows apace.

Bennett's not out of the woods, of course, and he still can expect a tough fight just to get out of the state GOP convention next year when he tries for his fourth term.

But Bennett got some good news last week when two more conservative types jumped into the race for the 2010 nomination. The more right-wingers in that fight the better, I would think, for Bennett.

Now don't get me wrong. Bennett is a conservative by any stretch of the imagination. But it's all relative. In Massachusetts, he would be off-the-chart conservative. In Salt Lake County, he is a regular conservative, but in some parts of Utah County and southern Utah, folks might be painting their doors with goat's blood to keep the liberal out.

That last group generally has fairly good representation at the convention, so when right-wing radio hosts and bloggers began bashing the senator for being too much of a Washington insider, Bennett took notice.

His first big challenge came from the long-anticipated announcement that Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff will run against him in the state convention in 2010. Then, businessman and former congressional candidate Tim Bridgewater dropped out of the race for state party chairman, saying he'd been encouraged by the conservative Republican base to run for the Senate.

That didn't bode

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too well for Bennett, given that both challengers have substantial party credentials and could give him a run in the convention. Together, they possibly might even oust him before he makes it to a primary.

But two more hopefuls who jumped in last week make the right-wing pedestal a bit crowded. And while it seems to me that neither of the newcomers would pose much of a threat to Bennett in a primary election, or even at the convention if it was between him and them, they do bring enough moxie to steal some votes from the other challengers.

South Jordan small business owner James Williams is testing the waters for the first time but shouldn't be too much of a threat. He describes himself as a Ron Paul Republican, meaning he has a strong Libertarian bent, whch some delegates would find attractive.

Then there is Cherilyn Bacon Eagar, an arch-conservative firebrand who might hurt those claiming to be a good conservative alternative to Bennett. Eagar was state Sen. Margaret Dayton's "expert" when the Orem Republican targeted the International Baccalaureate Program. Dayton argued against expanded state funding for the well-respected high school program, citing its supposed "U.N. agenda."

Eagar had posted on the Utah Senate's Republican caucus site her concerns about the IB program, alleging it has a "left-wing agenda" and attempts to "undermine Christian religious values." Her proof of that was a comment made by the late Desmond Cole, one of the developers of the IB program, who said that "no war is ever justified -- only the war on poverty, want and hunger."

So, according to Eagar, fighting poverty and hunger is an assault on Christian religious values. But don't laugh. That nonsense will play in some circles in the convention, where she should pick up the Hurricane delegation.

Don't count on the challengers to unite behind the strongest of their ilk in order to knock Bennett out of the convention. These folks will be so focused on outdoing each other for the hearts and minds of Utah conservatives, it's a safe bet they won't be all that friendly come convention time.

So, yes, it was a good week for the incumbent.