ORRIN HATCH CONTINUES TO HIDE FROM THE PUBLIC AND THE PRESS
May 8, 2012Accepts only one debate request, out of the public eye
Salt Lake City, UT – Today, 36-year incumbent Senator Orrin Hatch at last agreed to a single debate on KSL Radio’s Doug Wright Show against conservative challenger, Dan Liljenquist, while still refusing to accept an invitation to a series of live debates.
“I appreciate the opportunity to debate Senator Hatch on the radio. That’s a good start,” said Liljenquist, “but the voters of today deserve to see the primary candidates in a series of debates around the state, just as Hatch himself called for in 1976. For those voters who have the time and opportunity to tune in a specific radio station at a specific time, Doug’s show is a great venue. But that is a disservice to other media outlets who also cover Utah. Plus, why would the Senator knowingly exclude the many thousands of voters who can’t tune in? Why would Senator Hatch want to avoid the voters of Utah and keep them from making a fully informed choice?”
Liljenquist has repeatedly invited Hatch to engage in a series of debates around Utah, and has suggested eight college campuses as a good venue for them. Hatch’s campaign has ignored the requests, citing the Senator’s “work load” in Washington; this despite the fact that Utah’s junior Senator Mike Lee hosted a series of town hall meetings last week, streaming the gatherings on the Internet to Utahns around the state.
Added Liljenquist, “Many people are asking us why Senator Hatch is hiding out, refusing to stand before the voters. We think the answer is pretty obvious, given the outcome of the pre-convention debates, but we want to give the Senator the benefit of the doubt. We have put our invitation out there, seemingly without effect; the next step is for Utah constituents to start calling upon the Senator to fully engage in the electoral process, as befits a man of his stature. It is an insult to the voters for him to avoid his own constituents in the run up to a primary election as he has to this point. Canned statements from paid campaign staff are a poor substitute for a full and fair airing of the issues, and hardly what Utah voters deserve.”
Senator Hatch’s office telephone number in Salt Lake is:(801) 524-4380. The Liljenquist campaign encourages interested voters to call and give their opinion.

