"A Hatch retirement — and a Romney Senate run — could be inching closer to reality" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff October 27, 2017
WASHINGTON — Republican Senator Orrin Hatch is reportedly telling friends that he won’t seek reelection in Utah, which would make him the fourth GOP incumbent to decline to seek another term or lose a primary and would also clear the path for Mitt Romney to mount a Senate race.
The report, based on five anonymous sources close to Hatch, appeared Friday in The Atlantic. A campaign spokesman for the 83-year-old Utah senator said that Hatch has not made up his mind about whether to run.
Three people close to Romney told the Globe that he’s exploring the option of running.
The notion of Romney mounting another campaign presents a nightmare scenario for President Trump, who would be trading an ally in the Senate for a far less friendly voice. As a former Republican nominee for president with his own relations with international leaders, Romney, 70, speaks for the Republican Party in a way that most senators don’t.
He’s also been a vocal White House critic — but after Trump won, Romney auditioned to be Trump’s secretary of state and met with him twice, including a meal that included sauteed frog legs at a restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in New York.
“He would be beholden to nobody,” said Beth Myers, a former top Romney aide, in an interview before the Atlantic story was released. “He would be an independent voice in the Senate, there is no doubt about that.”
The sentiment is shared by leaders of the nationalist wing of the Republican Party. Sebastian Gorka, a former White House aide, called Romney “just another RINO,” or Republican In Name Only.
“He is the epitome of the old school Republican elite,” said Gorka. “Romney is the opposite of the spirit of the Make America Great Again agenda.”
Others offered similar views. “The last thing the US Senate needs is another never Trumper whose main goal is to target the president and kiss up to the mainstream media,” said one former White House staffer who is aligned with efforts to mount primary challenges to sitting Republican senators.
Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News and a former White House aide, has reportedly met with some potential candidates for the Senate who would be stylistically more similar to Trump than Romney. A person close to Bannon predicted that Romney would face a “bloody primary” but also acknowledged Romney would probably win.
So far this year, two of Trump’s top GOP critics in the Senate, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee, have opted not to run again, which will clear out some of the anti-Trump sentiment from the upper chamber.
Another critic, John McCain of Arizona, is undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer.
McCain, who was the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, likes the idea of having the 2012 nominee as a colleague.....
For how long?
--more--"
Have you seen his advisors?
I will be making my escape now.
