Club For Growth Will Try To Boot Bennett

The Club for Growth, in its ongoing quest to eject moderate Republicans from Congress by backing conservative primary challengers, announced today that it will go after Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) in 2010.

That will mean funding a Republican primary challenger, and the Club says it's prepared to spend the money in this race. The Club doesn't yet have a single challenger in mind, but it has interviewed three: businesswoman Cherilyn Eagar, businessman Tim Bridgewater, and attorney Mike Lee. "All are viable and superior candidates," Club spokesman Michael Connolly said.


On its face, the move might look surprising: Bennett isn't the most liberal member of the Republican caucus, and he has a lifetime rating of 83.6 from the American Conservatives Union.

But he's not the most conservative, by any means. Bennett partnered with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to push the Healthy Americans Act in the previous Congress, paving the way for other Republicans to join and, more loosely, set a precedent for a Republican proactively seeking bipartisan legislation to expand health coverage. The Club also cites his record on spending, and Bennett has signed onto a bipartisan bill that would create a deficit-reduction commission, something fiscal conservatives don't like.

Bennett might be seen as a lost opportunity for conservatives who can envision Utah, a conservative state, producing one of the Senate's most conservative members, someone in the mold of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), for instance.

The Club is now involved in five Senate races in 2010: it's backing two conservative champions, incumbent Sens. DeMint and Tom Coburn (R-OK), plus challengers Pat Toomey (the Club's former president) in Pennsylvania and Marco Rubio in Florida. It's involved in three House races for open seats, supporting Tom Graves in GA-09, Tim Huelskamp in KS-01, and Kevin Calvey in OK-05.