Oddball
Unobtanium Member
SALT LAKE CITY – Republican Sen. Bob Bennett was thrown out of office Saturday by delegates at the Utah GOP convention in what represents a stunning defeat for a once-popular three-term incumbent who fell victim to a growing conservative movement nationwide.
Bennett's failure to make it into Utah's GOP primary — let alone win his party's nomination — makes him the first congressional incumbent to be ousted this year and demonstrates the difficult challenges candidates are facing from the right in 2010.
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Bennett has been under fire for the past year for voting for a Wall Street bailout, co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill mandating health insurance coverage and for aggressively pursuing earmarks for his state.
Lee and Bridgewater pledged to be more fiscally conservative than Bennett, who was targeted for defeat by the Washington-based anti-tax group Club for Growth.
US Sen. Bob Bennett ousted at Utah GOP convention - Yahoo! News