Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part series on the making of a Utah political icon —six-term U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch. Read part two at http://bit.ly/xoLtPB.
Washington » One by one, Orrin Hatch told his closest friends and family that he would run for the Senate and their reaction was nearly universal: He had no political experience and therefore no chance.
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His wife’s response was no more encouraging. She cried for three days.
The year was 1976, and you know how this story ends. Hatch defeats Sen. Frank Moss, launching a political career unparalleled in the state of Utah. But how he claimed that first victory is a story worth telling. The rise of Sen. Orrin Hatch involved nothing short of a sex scandal, a surprise endorsement and a political shift of historic proportions.
Now, 36 years later, he faces what is likely his last electoral showdown against two upstart Republicans who want to duplicate his feat and best a powerful incumbent.
They’ll have the assistance of a political climate similar to the late 1970s, with a nation in economic turmoil and voters harboring a throw-the-bums-out mentality. The challengers — Dan Liljenquist and state Rep. Chris Herrod — are expected to run a campaign similar to that of a young Hatch, portraying themselves as Washington outsiders intent on reducing the scope of the federal government.
But as Hatch’s first race shows, winning an election often hinges on a few big decisions and some factors out of a candidate’s control.
‘Nobody knows you’ » He had his own law firm and served as the bishop of his LDS ward, but Hatch had not participated in politics since moving to Utah from Pittsburgh in 1969.
His friends didn’t know he entertained the possibility of running for office until he broke the news just weeks before he would launch his campaign.
"I said: ‘Nobody knows you, you have no money. It’s impossible,’ " recalls Frank Madsen, who was the bishop before Hatch. "And he said: ‘Well, I’m going to do it and I can win.’ "
Walt Plumb, his partner in the law firm, also tried to talk Hatch out of it, but their conversation turned from the logistical challenges to Hatch’s motivation.
"He felt like God wanted him to run for the United States Senate," Plumb said. "That’s how he felt. Definitely."
Hatch doesn’t describe it that way, but he also doesn’t deny a spiritual impulse.
"I don’t claim that I was chosen by God to run for the United State Senate, nor do I think anyone else should claim that," he said. "But I knew it was the right thing to do."
Hatch, then 42, filed for office on the last possible day, just a week before Utah Republicans would hold small meetings to elect delegates for the state convention.
He said his knees buckled when he finished the paperwork and faced the media. The story in the next day’s edition of The Salt Lake Tribune was the first time he was ever mentioned in the newspaper.
He described himself as a "nonpolitician" and said: "The old-line party professionals tell me I have no chance to win — to even come out of the party state convention. But I’m used to impossible odds. That’s the story of my life."
To gain his party’s nomination, Hatch would have to best four GOP candidates who had been campaigning for months. The group was led by Jack Carlson, who resigned his post as assistant Interior secretary in the Ford administration to return to Utah to campaign. The others were Sherm Lloyd, a former Utah congressman; Des Barker, who had worked in the Nixon administration; and Clinton Miller, a former lobbyist.
Courting the right » In those early days, Hatch’s support came largely from people with ties to Pittsburgh. That includes Mac Haddow, who grew up near Hatch’s parents, Jesse and Helen, and considered them surrogate parents.
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