Hatch: Chaffetz Said He Won’t Run Against Me
09.03.2010 by Jeff Robinson
(KCPW News) Republican Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz has been thinking about running against Senator Orrin Hatch in 2012. But now, Hatch claims that Chaffetz has assured him that won’t happen.
“Let’s put it this way: Jason has been with me right in my office and said that he’s not going to run against me, and made it very, very clear,” Hatch said. “I take him at his word. I think he’s an honorable person.”
However, if Chaffetz does challenge Hatch, the senator says “he’d be in one heck of a fight.”
Representative Chaffetz denies ever promising Hatch that he wouldn’t challenge him.
“I told him I wasn’t going to run against Bob Bennett,” Chaffetz told KCPW. “Wrong Senator! I’ve been very candid and clear, saying, I might. I’m a definite maybe.”
Chaffetz adds that he hasn’t even been in Senator Hatch’s office for about six months. Hatch spoke on KCPW’s Politics Up Close.
The real question: Why does Senator Hatch think Rep. Chaffetz would cut a deal with him not to run for Senate. I have been watching Jason for well over 2 years. Over the last 12 months, I have not heard him say he was for sure going to run for US Senate, or say he wasn’t. He has always said he was keeping that option open.
I think Rep. Chaffetz is doing great in the US House.
If he runs for the US Senate, he would make a great senator.