Salt Lake Tribune Poll: Looks Like Bob Bennett is Toast

Will Senator Bennett pull a rabbit out of his hat, with one last round of frantic pre-convention campaign spending?

On the heels of last Thursday's evidence, the Salt Lake Tribune offers up more polling data this morning to suggest that Utah's Junior Senator Bob Bennett may be toast:

Unless Sen. Bob Bennett's political fortunes change dramatically in the next two weeks, he could become Utah's first incumbent U.S. senator to lose his party's nomination in seven decades.
A new Salt Lake Tribune poll of Republican delegates shows Bennett running in third, behind GOP challengers Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater.
Lee logged 37 percent support in the survey, while Bridgewater came in at 20 percent, and Bennett lagged at 16 percent.

Read all about it here:

• Poll stunner: Sen. Bennett on brink of defeat

What about it gentle readers? Is it time to say bye-bye to Beltway Bob? Or will Bennett pull a rabbit out of his hat, with one last round of frantic pre-convention spending?

• Sen. Bob Bennett dropping big bucks before GOP convention

Here's the nutshell lowdown from the D-News on Bennett's last-minute campaign spending spree:

SALT LAKE CITY — Facing the strong possibility of elimination at the upcoming state GOP convention, Sen. Bob Bennett's campaign pulled out all the stops and spent a huge $271,000 in just the first 18 days of this month.
In comparison, that is almost as much as Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, spent in his entire two-year 2008 congressional race. Bennett's heavy spending this month also comes on top of the $428,000 that he spent in the first three months of the year (before the party caucuses) — for a total of nearly $700,000 in three and a half months this year.

Whew!

"Cash is king in politics," as all political wonks well know; and thanks to the generosity of the investment, banking, insurance and nuclear waste storage industries, Beltway Bob has a pot-load of it to spread around, in the ten days remaining before the Utah GOP convention.

The question is... "Will these great wads of campaign cash make any difference at all?"
So many questions, et cetera.

Update 4/27/10 1:00 p.m.: Standard-Examiner editorial page editor Doug Gibson is on this story, like a giant Rottweiler "finding and munching a tasty bone." Check out Doug's Std-Ex blog:

• Bob Bennett is cooked and ready to lose at convention

Chime in here or there, gentle readers.

And here we'd thought earlier this morning that we were once again mired in a slow news day.