Hatch seeks to assume role of 'conservative alternative'

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, June 28, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Senator Orrin G. Hatch squeezed into the "Senators Only" elevator as three colleagues waited for the Utah Republican, who announced last week he is running for the White House.

"Mr. President!" the senators said gravely, before breaking into convivial laughter and backslapping.

"All you need is 25,000 people in New Hampshire," advised Senator Bob Kerrey, the Nebraska Democrat who failed to make such headway in his 1992 presidential bid. Depending on how many candidates are in the race, that could be the magic number for victory in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

Hatch eagerly soaked up the sudden attention from his surprise announcement. "Twenty-five thousand in New Hampshire, that's all," Hatch mused aloud half-seriously, as he allowed a reporter to follow him for a morning one day last week, from a limousine ride to the Capitol, to some quiet moments in his Senate office.

"A lot of people tell me I'm nuts. Why would I do this?" the 65-year-old Hatch said, acknowledging he is far behind others who have money, organization, and activists lined up. But he has a ready answer.

"George W. Bush is up here," Hatch said, holding his hand at the top of his 6-foot-2-inch frame. "Elizabeth Dole is number two, way down here," he said, putting his hand at knee level. "There is a tremendous void. If something happens to Bush, there's a long drop."

Indeed, one rationale for Hatch's candidacy can be found in the distance between Bush and the rest of the Republican field of candidates. While Bush proclaims himself as the "compassionate conservative," the race is on to be the "conservative alternative."

So far, prospects such as former Vice President Dan Quayle and commentator Patrick J. Buchanan have not caught fire in the polls. Thus, the theory goes, there is room for a nationally recognized conservative who could use his Senate-based fund-raising prowess to break into the pack.

The only problem with this theory is many of the most committed conservatives distrust Hatch. While Hatch said "no one can doubt I'm a conservative," plenty of people on the right are doubtful due to Hatch's frequent alliance with his ideological opposite, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat.

"The really hard-edged conservatives who might have already rejected Bush probably wouldn't like Orrin either," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "They think he plays the game up there too much with Kennedy."

Hatch, for example, worked with Kennedy on a bill that resulted in providing health insurance for 7 million children. Hatch's "odd couple" alliance prompted the conservative National Review magazine in 1997 to call Hatch, who is Mormon, a "Latter-Day Liberal," a cutting reference to Hatch's membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Hatch, who refers to such criticism as a "smear job," said he has a 23-year record in the Senate as a conservative. Those credentials were on display when he backed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991. Some observers said Hatch still bears the scars of the Thomas hearings, when he aggressively questioned Anita Hill's assertion that she was sexually harassed by Thomas.

Hatch, however, said his performance in the hearings was "misconstrued." He said many people have changed their minds about Thomas, because he is a "terrific justice . . . writing some of the best opinions, and he is willing to stand up and courageously take people on."

One of Hatch's prime reasons for running is that the next president could nominate three Supreme Court justices and a large number of federal judges. While Hatch said he does not believe in litmus tests for judges on issues such as abortion, he has made it clear he prefers conservatives for the bench. He said his other top issues would be overhauling Social Security, building up defense, and cutting taxes.

Yet throughout much of the morning, Hatch spelled out his moderate credentials. "I'm the only senator who can bring Senator Kennedy to the middle," he said. "And I guess he has brought me to the middle."

Hatch reeled off examples, such as child care and AIDS legislation, while emphasizing that he disagrees with Kennedy on many other issues, such as education. Asked about Bush's characterization of himself as a "compassionate conservative," Hatch said, "I called myself that in 1982."

This prompts Hatch to talk about a side of himself that is little known to the public. While viewed as the ultimate Utah Republican, he was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he also attended law school as a self-described liberal Democrat. After he moved to Utah, where he raised six children with his wife, Elaine, he became a conservative.

"I was a janitor," Hatch said, referring to a job during his college days. "I was a metal lather. I know what it is like to get my hands dirty. I'm one of the few senators to hold a union card. I won't take any crap. I'm a tough guy," he said, quickly adding, "in an open-hearted way."

After speaking to the board of directors of a drug company meeting at the Smithsonian Institution Castle, Hatch rode in a black limousine to Capitol Hill. Striding quickly down a hallway, Hatch opened an unmarked door and beckoned, "Come on in. I want you to listen to something. Did you know I was a songwriter?"

Hatch's office is as cozy as a living room. A parade of Beanie Babies lines the couch. Basketballs from the NBA's Utah Jazz and WNBA's Starzz rest atop a bookshelf. On his desk is a dog-eared copy of "What It Takes," the Richard Ben Cramer book about the 1988 presidential campaign.

Motioning for silence, Hatch inserts a CD into his office stereo. The room fills with the sounds of a song he wrote about children who have AIDS, with the refrain, "These are the innocent." Hatch is clearly moved by his own words, and he translates that into a rationale for his candidacy.

"Yeah, I have 'what it takes,' " Hatch said, launching into an exhortation about the need to help people who can't help themselves. What irks him, Hatch said, is when the government helps "people who don't want to help themselves."

Hatch's presidential ambitions have prompted more than a few guffaws in Washington. When Hatch said this week that he is 99.5 percent certain that he is running for president, political analyst Stuart Rothenberg promptly offered this acid assessment: "Then I'm 99.5 percent he won't be the Republican nominee."

"If he really wanted to run for president, he should have done this a year ago," Rothenberg said. "He should have $6 million in the bank and political operatives in Iowa, a major presence in New Hampshire, and he should have visited all these other states early. I don't see this as a credible candidacy so far. He's too late."

Hatch's first test will be financial. Most analysts believe a credible candidate must raise $20 million or more this year to be viable early next year. Many GOP candidates have had trouble raising money in recent months because Bush has lined up so many top Republican contributors.

Hatch, however, has two advantages. First, he can transfer money from his $1 million Senate campaign war chest to a presidential bid, although Hatch said he will transfer only a small portion.

Second, Hatch's status as one of the Senate's most powerful members, including the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee and a seat on the Finance Committee, could make it easier for him to bring in presidential campaign contributions than for candidates who do not hold office.

Hatch also could benefit from support by the 5 million members of the Mormon Church, according to the senator's confidant, Lee Roderick.

"This will not be orchestrated by the church," said Roderick, who wrote a Hatch biography called "Leading the Charge." "But the reality is once the members know Orrin Hatch is in, there will be a lot of people who will rise up in grass roots around the country."

Hatch, meanwhile, is listening to advice from fellow senators, including his "great friend" Kennedy, who failed in his 1980 campaign to be president. Kennedy wished Hatch well in the GOP primaries but plans to support the Democratic nominee.

"Kennedy said he is going to teach me what not to do," Hatch said. Then again, Hatch recalled, when Kennedy found out Hatch was once a janitor, the senator told him: "You should have stuck with it."