Even though Sen. Orrin Hatch has not yet decided whether he will run for an eighth term, his fundraising is showing no signs of slowing down.
The latest FEC filing shows Hatch pulled in nearly $1 million during the last three months from July through September. The $931,959 in contributions outpaced the $874,524 his campaign reported in the previous quarter.
So far this year, Hatch has pulled in more than $5.7 million.
Hatch’s campaign spending for the just completed quarter was just over $256,000, which leaves him a healthy $4,572,061 in the bank.
That hefty sum makes him a prohibitive favorite to win an eighth term in 2018 should he decide to run.
While Hatch clearly has a massive cash advantage over any potential opponent, a win in 2018 is hardly a slam dunk for a number of reasons:
- Last week news broke that former White House strategist Steve Bannon and David Bossie, the president of Citizens United, were planning on recruiting a candidate to either face Hatch in a primary next year or to run for his seat should he decide to retire. That report was followed up by reports that Sutherland Institute President Boyd Matheson had met with Bannon and Bossie about a possible Senate bid in 2018.
- Hatch had promised during his 2012 campaign that he would make his current term his last. According to the polls, Utahns seem to be in favor of him keeping that promise. An August poll from the Salt Lake Tribune showed more than 3/4ths of Utahns did not want Hatch to run for another term in 2018. A September survey from UtahPolicy.com showed Hatch with a negative job approval from Utahns, with 50% disapproving of his job performance and 46% expressing approval.
- Hatch is taking some fire this week for a Washington Post/60 Minutes investigation that dinged him for helping to push through legislation that weakened the DEA’s ability to curtail the opioid epidemic while pulling in $177,000 in campaign donations from big pharma. Hatch has hit back hard at that report, claiming it’s “one-sided.”
If Hatch decides not to run, former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is reportedly interested in running, as is Rep. Chris Stewart.
Hatch raised nearly nine times as much as his chief Democratic challenger, Jenny Wilson, reported during the last three months. Wilson reported $155,454 in donations, with $125,765 in expenditures. She has $139,582 on hand.
Mitchell Vice, the other Democrat hoping to challenge for Hatch’s seat, had not filed a financial disclosure as of publication time.
