Net tycoon says he'll work for defeat of Utah's Hatch

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 7, 2005

Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban isn't rooting for the re-election of U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, next year.

During a radio broadcast Friday on Salt Lake City's KCPW, Cuban said he thinks Hatch is "the digital Joe McCarthy" and he'll work to get the five-term senator replaced in 2006.

A self-described "technology geek" and the founder of Broadcast.com, Cuban believes Hatch's positions on technology keep the United States from being competitive. He specifically points to Hatch's remarks that computers storing illegally downloaded music should be destroyed.

"The policies and actions of Sen. Hatch are very concerning to me from what I read and from my personal interactions with him," Cuban said, then comparing Hatch to Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy who during the 1950s tried to hunt down communist sympathizers living in the U.S.