Tea Party Town Hall to include Hatch

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Tea Party Express is holding an online town hall tomorrow and both of Utah's senators are participating.That's right Sen. Orrin Hatch is hanging with the tea party, no doubt part of his bid to placate the Republican revolutionaries in hopes of avoiding a challenge in 2012.Hatch, who has aggressively courted the tea party in recent months, tweeted today that he would join the town hall in Washington with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and two members of the House Tea Party Caucus.One of the leading strategists for the Tea Party Express is a former Hatch campaign employee Sal Russo, who recently hinted that the tea party wouldn't challenge Utah's senior senator. Russo was quickly rebuffed by other tea party groups such as FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth, who said Hatch remains in their crosshairs.

And even a spokesman for the group warned Hatch that he wouldn't get any softballs from this crowd.

@OurCountryPAC: "@OrrinHatch: Hope you're ready for some tough questions."

— Matt CanhamTwitter.com/mattcanham