Aides: Hatch to quit GOP presidential race
January 25, 2000
Web posted at: 2:55 p.m. EST (1955 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After a dismal last-place showing in the Iowa caucuses, Utah Sen. Orrin
Hatch is abandoning his Republican presidential nomination bid, two advisers told CNN Tuesday. An
announcement is expected Wednesday.
Hatch mustered a bare 1 percent in Monday night's caucuses, which are the first presidential voting in the 2000 race. The senator returned immediately to Washington, where he had hoped to make his withdrawal announcement Tuesday. But the heavy snow storm in the nation's capital made him postpone that.
He now plans to hold a news conference at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday. His office declined to comment on the senator's
plans. "He's not taking any calls," said spokesman Paul Smith.
Hatch did not make a public appearance after the results Monday night but released a statement that said he looked
"forward to returning to New Hampshire this week."
Hatch launched his quixotic campaign for the Republican nomination last July. At that time, Hatch said that he had
examined the rest of the GOP field and found it lacking a candidate with the experience to be an effective president.
Aides also said that Hatch was concerned that the other candidates in the GOP field were not strong enough to step
into the front-runner position in the event of a stumble by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who won Monday night's
caucuses. Hatch also said Bush didn't have the experience to be president and was "born in privilege."
"If I didn't think I would make a better president, I wouldn't get into it," Hatch said.
Hatch, 65, was hoping his four terms in the Senate would show voters he had the experience to be president. He repeatedly said he was the only candidate with the background to pick Supreme Court justices who would uphold conservative principles, such as opposition to abortion.
But the conservative senator faced an uphill battle from the start. He joined a crowded GOP field with better known candidates already well established and other candidates already struggling as Bush kept gaining momentum.
Hatch asked for 1 million donors to give him $36 each to raise $36 million in an effort to catch Bush. But he fell far short
of that goal, raising $2.3 million so far and his candidacy has been mired at the bottom of the polls.
Dropping out of the presidential race early also allows Hatch to focus on his Senate re-election campaign. Utah
lawmakers had changed state law to allow him to simultaneously run for president and for the Senate.
Hatch, the only Mormon among the presidential contenders, has said anti-Mormon bias hurt him among Christian conservative voters, which he was attempting to reach with his conservative message.
"Some of these people have an absolutely loony belief that Mormons aren't Christian," Hatch said last Friday. "There's
some misapprehensions and some miscomprehension about my faith."
But one Iowa political observer said Hatch's Senate experience was not enough to overcome a poorly funded and poorly organized campaign.
"The fact that he's had a lot of experience in the Senate wasn't really that exciting or enough to make people want to
switch over to him," said Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt.
Hatch bought television airtime in Iowa and New Hampshire earlier this month to air his first commercial, a 28-minute
speech that lambasted the Clinton Administration, focusing especially on issues of national security. "I have been
appalled at what has happened in Washington," Hatch said. "Defenders of the administration say, 'This isn't
Watergate.' You know, they're right. It's worse than Watergate."
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hatch played a crucial role in the months leading to the impeachment
trial of President Bill Clinton. Aides say the experience left him with "a really bad feeling" toward Clinton, and a
determination to see a Republican presidential victory in 2000.
Of the other Republicans in the bottom three in Iowa, Arizona Sen. John McCain took 5 percent but he did not
campaign in the state, skipping the caucuses in favor of the upcoming New Hampshire and South Carolina presidential
primaries.
Religious conservative candidate Gary Bauer had 9 percent and told advisers he intended to keep his schedule in New
Hampshire this week. But he was disappointed by the results in Iowa and said he would be continuously assessing his
candidacy.
Bauer said of Hatch: "I can't say I'm too sad to see him go since I want everyone to go but me. But he's a good man and I'm glad he was there."
CNN's John King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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