The Spirit of 1976 part V: A feature Article

On Sunday, October 17, 1976, The Salt Lake Tribune ran a story on the front page of the local section (B1, continued on page B2) by their political editor Douglas L Parker. He had spent parts of two days with each candidate that week. What follows are exerpts of those stories.

"I think, at the bottom line, it's a new face," said Mr. Hatch, a 42-year-old lawyer making his first dip into state elective politics since moving to Utah in 1969 from Pittsburgh, Pa. "I think the people are tired of the old politics."

A gap between the two contenders is, perhaps, most sharply drawn when you consider that Mr. Hatch was a Brigham Young University student ... when Sen. Moss, now 65, first ran and won in a three-way race for U.S. Senator in 1958.

Pete Ashdown was 9 and a student at a Bountiful-area elementary school when Sen Hatch, now 72, first ran and won in a race for U.S. Senator in 1976.

Democrats control Congress so they are to blame for inflation and bureaucracy, Mr Hatch says.

And now Republicans are in control, so I guess they are to blame.

Mr. Hatch says he resents being "branded" by some as a "right wing conservative." But he thinks that's been pretty well dissipated. He tells the medical students [at BYU] he looks upon himself as an eclectic, "one who tries to take the truth from wherever it comes."

What he does with that truth is annother matter.

-Bob

The Spirit of 1976
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX