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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett is fighting to hang on to an office he's held since 1992 as he begins wooing delegates to vote for him at the GOP convention in May.
Delegates were chosen in neighborhood caucuses Tuesday night, kicking off a six-week race to the state convention that Bennett says will be the most difficult of his career.
Blogs, Twitter and Facebook are ablaze with "anti-Bennett" sentiment on the heels of Utah's caucus meetings.
Many Republicans say Bennett isn't conservative enough because he supported a bailout of the nation's financial industry. "Bailout Bob," as one blogger called him, is taking heat for his initial vote for the financial bailout. But the Senator himself is unapologetic.
"Mitt Romney has called it the correct and courageous vote," Bennett tells KSL's Doug Wright show. "And every economist I've talked to -- conservative as well as liberal -- said at the time, under the circumstances, it was the right thing to do."
Bennett says it doesn't seem to matter that he's voted against other stimulus measures since then. But he says at his caucus in the Avenues, everyone was on his side.
Bennett is facing seven challengers from within his own party -- more than any other candidate in Utah for state or federal office.
The three-term incumbent's fate now lies with about 3,500 delegates who are free to vote for whomever they want and are traditionally more conservative than voters as a whole.
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Story compiled with contributions from the Associated Press and Becky Bruce.
