The Eye

He added, "Thinking of 'texting while drowsy' law after private 1AM tweet went public. Formal announcement on 5/20 about senate race and tweeting plans." Shurtleff also sent a tweet saying he thought he was texting to a friend when he made the error. Shurtleff quickly took down the messages. He was on a trade mission with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in Israel when the transmission occurred.

Under Utah's unique system for culling candidate fields, balloting will be held at the Republican state convention in May 2010, with the last-place finisher on each ballot eliminated until there are two competitors left. If one candidate should receive 60 percent of the delegate votes on any ballot, he or she would be deemed nominated and there would be no primary contest. If that does not occur, a primary between the two finalist candidates would ensue with the top vote-getter declard the primary winner.

According to the Deseret News, Shurtleff wrote that he "should have no trouble" raising up to $2 million. He also made a bold prediction on a text saying he would be able to knock Bennett out at the convention.

Bennett has only been challenged once in a primary, in his initial run for the Senate in 1992 when he beat out Joe Cannon, brother of former congressman Chris Cannon (1997-2009), 51 percent to 49 percent.

Shurtleff is not the only one pursuing Bennett's seat. The newspaper also reported that Tim Bridgewater, a management consultant, is planning to form an exploratory committee. Bridgewater ran twice for the 2nd Congressional District and lost in the primary both times in 2002 and 2004. He also was a top campaign aide to Sen. John McCain as well as an education and political adviser to Huntsman.

-- Michael Teitelbaum