Utah Senate: Brad Wilson memo tries to paint John Curtis as not conservative enough

EXCLUSIVE — An internal polling memo in the Utah Senate race seeks to paint Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) as not conservative enough to win the statewide seat.

The internal memo conducted for Brad Wilson — the former Utah state House speaker who is running for the Senate seat — and obtained by the Washington Examiner attempts to label Curtis as not conservative enough to win the Republican primary to replace Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who is set to retire at the end of the term. Curtis has not yet jumped into the Senate race.

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According to the poll conducted by WPA Intelligence, only 14% of voters who considered themselves “Strong Republicans” viewed Curtis as “Very Conservative,” and 18% of “Traditional Republicans” viewed Curtis as “Very Conservative.”

In both those categories, the voters viewed Curtis as more “Moderate/Liberal” than they did “Very Conservative.”

The survey tested was conducted on Nov. 13-15 and had a sample size of 404 Republican primary voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9%.

The memo says that “most Republican primary voters do not view John Curtis as a strong conservative” and that he is “not positioned well to win the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.”

It also provides insight into the thinking of the Wilson campaign that they believe Curtis might jump into the race and are attempting to push back on any eventual candidacy by labeling Wilson as the more conservative candidate.

“If they’re so convinced that John Curtis is not well-positioned to win the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, I’m curious to know why they’re in a full-court press to keep him out of the race,” Adrielle Herring, Curtis’ campaign manager, said in a statement. “Congressman Curtis brings Utahns together, and his successful track record speaks for itself.”

Curtis, while rumored to be thinking about getting into the race, with one source saying he’s highly considering it, has not yet thrown his name in the mix. To the contrary, Curtis has said he does not plan on running for Senate and instead plans to run for re-election in his House seat.

“My first reason for not jumping into the U.S. Senate race is very important to me. When I ran for my House seat, I made a commitment to the residents of the 3rd District. We’ve accomplished a lot, but my work for them is not done. I believe we need elected leaders who are more concerned about doing their job than getting the next job,” Curtis wrote in Deseret News. “To walk away now would leave a commitment unfilled. I want to finish the job.”

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While the results show, that some voters might not view Curtis as “conservative” enough to win a primary, the current senator, Romney, is a well-known centrist and was often attacked by those in the far right of the party.

The field to replace Romney is already crowded with seven candidates already filing with the Federal Election Commission to run.