This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
This chart comes from The New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog and it seeks to show which Republican senators match the partisan makeup of the states they represent. Sens. Bob Bennett and Lisa Murkowski are in blue because they lost their reelection bids.
What it shows is that a handful of senators appear to vote more conservatively than you would expect based on voting indexes for each state, and a handful vote more liberally.
Utah's senators are both below the line, slipping into a more "liberal" territory than is expected someone supported by Utah's rabidly conservative voters. Looked at in another way, this chart shows that Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett are in the same partisan ballpark as most Republicans in the Senate, though they come from a state that is more conservative than just about any other.
Republican Mike Lee bested Bennett at the convention and ultimately claimed his party's nomination for Utah's senate seat. If he wins in November, expect him to appear near the top of this chart, since he closely aligns himself with Sen. Jim DeMint. And that may mean Utah would go from a senator voting more liberally than anticipated to a senator that may vote more conservatively than anticipated.
This chart is likely bad news for Hatch, since he's up next, facing reelection in 2012. That disconnect between a more conservative voting base and a Senate record that is a step to the left is likely to be a hot topic.
Matt Canham
Twitter: @mattcanham