FOXNews.com: Sen. Hatch Clears FirstHurdle, Now Faces Primary

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Sen. Hatch Clears FirstHurdle, Now Faces Primary Apr 21st 2012, 21:40 SANDY, Utah –  GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch cleared a big hurdle Saturday in his battle to win a seventh term when he got the most votes at a state party convention but not enough votes to avoid a June primary.  Hatch unofficially got 59.19 percent of the vote from the 4,000 party delegates, and state Sen. Dan Liljenquist got 40.81 percent --- in a field of 11 candidates. A candidate would have need 60 percent to win the party nomination and avoid the June 26 primary.  "Anybody who knows me knows I'm a fighter,"  the 78-year-old Hatch, a former boxer, said before the voting. The state is the only one in the country in which candidates must get a high percentage of votes at caucuses and state conventions. In 2010, three-term GOP Sen. Bob Bennett was ousted at the caucus level in favor of Tea Party favorite Sen. Mike Lee, who also won in the general election. Bennett had one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate, but like many 2010 incumbents, he couldn't overcome the wave of voter dissatisfaction with Congress. "They were angry because ObamaCare had just been passed and so they flooded the caucus meetings and had a very angry electorate that wanted blood on almost all incumbents," recalled Kirk Jowers, associate professor and director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. In addition, moderate Republicans largely didn't go to the polls that year, which resulted in a relatively small number of caucus-goers ending Bennett's run. "You can almost have a U.S. senator or governor elected in Utah with fewer people than would elect a student body president of a high school," Jowers added. Hatch took notice and campaigned hard this year – especially after sensing his candidacy could be in trouble -- to fill the caucuses with a friendlier crowd. "Senator Hatch, I have to admit, did a marvelous job stacking the caucuses," state Rep. Chris Herrod, one of Hatch's primary challenger, said before the voting. Hatch, ranking Republican member of the Senate Committee on Finance, says had said he was cautiously optimistic. He spent a huge amount of campaign cash to ensure a supportive crowd turns out Saturday. He still faces a conservative electorate upset in part because he voted for the Defense Reauthorization Act, which critics say violates citizens' right to due process. Hatch's biggest opponent could perhaps be Freedom Works, the libertarian-based group founded by former Texas GOP Rep. Dick Army. The group says Hatch supports expansive government and is against economic freedom. Hatch rejects the argument he is against libertarians, saying it is Freedom Works, specifically, that he does not like. "I'm offended by Freedom Works … run by radical libertarians," he said.  "They've come in here and put out a 44-page brochure that is filled with disingenuity, distorting portions of my voting record, absolute lies of my voting record." He also has faced a ton of outside money coming into the state to try to help elect a younger candidate. "I'm a tough old bird," Hatch said. "I can take it." Faith Mangan contributed to this report.

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