Politics

Indifferent Iowa Dooms Hatch

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 25, 2000 / 10:37 AM EST / CBS

After a dismal showing in the Iowa caucuses, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch has quit the Republican presidential race.

"It is now clear that there will not be time to build sufficient support for my candidacy," Hatch told a news conference Wednesday morning.

People close to Hatch were saying Tuesday that he was upset over his failure to win the votes of even 1,000 Iowans. Hatch did not speak to reporters Tuesday.

"All these other (GOP candidates) are making grandiose promises, but three of them have never been elected to anything," Hatch said last week, referring to fellow conservatives Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes and Gary Bauer. "They have no clue how to work with Congress."

Orrin Hatch Bio

Age: 65; born March 22, 1934

Education: B.A. Brigham Young University (1959); J.D. University of Pittsburgh (1962)

Career: Attorney (1962-1976); Republican senator from Utah (1977-present)

Family: Wife, Elaine; six children

He said it: My life has been filled with impossibilities. My life has been filled with miracles. I believe in miracles. It would probably take that to elect me

Internet: Orrin Hatch

Source: CBS/AP

Hatch, 65, had counted on his four terms in the Senate and chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to 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 Hatch jumped into the campaign only last July, months or years after other GOP hopefuls. He asked for one million donors to give him $36 each for a total of $36 million, but he fell far short of that goal.

Of the other Republicans in the bottom three in Iowa, John McCain had 5 percent but did not compete in the state and is running much more strongly in New Hampshire. Gary Bauer had 9 percent and told advisers he intended to keep his schedule in New Hampshire this week though he was disappointed by the results in Iowa and would be continuously assessing his candidacy.

Dropping out of the presidential race allows Hatch to focus on his re-election campaign to the Senate. 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 the voters he was trying hardest to court: Christian conservatives.

"Some of these people have an absolutely loony belief that Mormons aren't Christian," Hatch said last Friday. "Theres some misapprehensions and some miscomprehension about my faith."

Iowa pundits blamed Hatch's poor showing more on 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.

With the field narrowed, the five remaining Republican presidential candidates were meeting for their final debate before New Hampshire voters weigh in the nation's first presidential primary next week.