WASHINGTON - Sen.
Orrin Hatch got a nice campaign boost a few months ago when he
hitched a ride to Utah on Air Force One and President Bush's
coattails.
There was Hatch,
strategically posed between Bush and the first lady on the
steps of the blue-and-white 747 jet a year before he makes a
bid for another term.
"I appreciate a
strong ally in Orrin Hatch," the president said of the Utah
Republican. "He does a great job for Utah and he does a great
job for the United States of America."
The choreographed plaudits didn't go
over well with some Utah leaders.
"In
case you haven't seen Monday's news, Orrin Hatch found his way
back to Utah," state Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, sneered on
his blog. "Sure it took the combined forces of the Secret
Service, Air Force One, and the power of the presidency, but
Orrin's back."
Dougall's comments
reflect a concern - echoed by some on the political right and
left - that Hatch is out of touch with Utahns and has
abandoned the state for the promised land of the Potomac.
But the record isn't that clear cut.
A review of Senate office records,
personal disclosures, and campaign expenses since 2000 by
The Salt Lake Tribune shows that Hatch spends an
average of 98 full days a year in Utah, plus about 37 days
when he was traveling between Washington and Salt Lake City.
On average - and excluding travel days when he is in Utah part
of the day - he spends about 27 percent of his time in the
Beehive State.
"For a Western senator,
that's pretty good," says University of Virginia political
science professor Larry Sabato. "That's at least as good as
the others. Sounds pretty reasonable to me."
Among a sampling of four Western
senators reviewed by The Tribune, Hatch finished third
in the amount of time spent in his home state over a two-year
period.
Sen. Wayne Allard bests the
other senators reviewed by a long way. The Colorado Republican
spends about 132 full days annually in his state, Senate
records show.
Sen. Bob Bennett, Utah's
other U.S. senator, spent an average of 101 days a year in
Utah, just a bit more than Hatch.
Sen.
Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat from nearby New Mexico, was away
from home the most, spending an average of 75.5 days a year in
his state.
Sabato, who has authored more
than 20 books on American politics, says senators from the
West probably should go back to their home states a quarter to
a third of the year, but constituents shouldn't worry unless a
senator dips below a fifth of the time.
And he adds that Allard faced a tough
race in 2002, probably prompting more face time in Colorado,
whereas Hatch, Bennett and Bingaman are in relatively safe
seats.
Hatch says he does his best to
get back home frequently and calls criticism of his time away
from the state ridiculous.
During the
past five years, the Senate has been in session an average of
154 days a year, and Hatch has one of the higher rankings for
making all of the chamber's votes.
"This
place has never grown on me," Hatch says of the nation's
capital. "I have to be here because this is where the job is
really fulfilled. [But] there's nothing like being home . . .
I'd rather be there than anywhere else."
Hatch's flights to and from Utah and
Washington are covered mainly by his office budget, though the
senator does occasionally pay out of his campaign account or
fly in on an Air Force jet.
And some
years Hatch spends more time in Utah than others, such as when
he's running for re-election. In 2000, when he was seeking a
fifth term, Hatch was in Utah nearly 105 full days. That
compares to about 71 full days he spent in Utah the following
year, after his seat was secured for another six years. But in
the last six years, Hatch spent the most amount of time in
Utah - 125 full days - in 2004.
Bennett
spent 96 full days in Utah in 2003 and 105 in 2004, when he
was seeking another term. His office declined to comment for
this story.
Some senators feel more at
home in Washington, while others can't wait to get out of the
Beltway, says Kirk Jowers, director of the University of
Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.
"[Hatch and Bennett] should be back [in
Utah] about a quarter of the time and it sounds like they hit
that almost exactly," said Jowers, who worked as an attorney
in Washington. "When you're a senator with significant
responsibilities you simply have to be back in D.C. a lot of
the time. It does not mean they're not hearing from
constituents because they're back East."
Hatch,
who is seeking his sixth
term next year, faces a challenge from neophyte Democrat Pete
Ashdown, who owns the Salt Lake City-based Internet service
provider company, XMission.
"Washington,
D.C., is his home more than Utah is," Ashdown says of Hatch.
He also criticizes Hatch as a
Utahn of convenience, moving here from his home state of
Pennsylvania only six years before running for the political
office that sent him to the nation's capital. "I have a hard
time seeing him as a Utah insider since he's not from this
area and he didn't spend much time here before he ran for
Senate."
Ashdown questions whether more
congressional work can be done over the Internet from
lawmakers' home states. He also pledges that, if elected, he
will rent an apartment in Washington and keep his family in
Utah.
State House Republican Whip Steve
Urquhart withdrew his short-lived bid against Hatch last
month, but before he pulled out said that it's not as much
Hatch's physical location as "where his focus is."
Hatch says he's very much plugged in to
what Utahns want and need.
"It's easy to
attack when you don't have anything substantive to talk
about," Hatch says.
Hatch has
lived in Washington for 29 years, but he has kept a home in
Utah as well.
In 1977, his first year in
Congress, he bought a home in Vienna, Va., for $130,000. The
four-bedroom, 2,055-square-foot, brick home on one acre in the
D.C. suburb is now worth $753,000, according to public
records, though such a price is deceptive in a housing market
where small condos go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In Utah, Hatch comes home to a
two-bedroom condo near Temple Square. The 1,385-square-foot
home is worth about $227,000, according to public tax records.
Former Sen. Jake Garn, a Republican who
represented Utah for three terms in the U.S. Senate, says all
congressional members would like to spend more time in their
home districts, but their work demands their presence in the
District of Columbia.
"Most of my
colleagues, regardless of party would prefer to have less
session time," said Garn, who was known for often giving
speeches on the Senate floor about how members of Congress
should spend more time in their home states.
"That's the thing a lot of people don't
understand is the distances and how much time you spend in
travel."
So far this year, Hatch's 14
round-trips would amount to about 140 hours of flight time,
not including hours waiting at the airports.
Two days before Utah's big Pioneer Day
celebration, Hatch attempted to pre-emptively thwart criticism
that he would be missing on a day Utah often heralds more than
the Fourth of July.
His office issued a
news release explaining that Hatch, unfortunately, would be in
Washington, attending an important committee meeting on the
energy bill.
Hatch usually makes the
parades. According to travel records, Hatch was in Utah for
Independence Day four of the last five years, there for
Pioneer Day two out of the last five years. And he spends the
annual August break in the Beehive State every year, as well
as Christmas in the state four of the last five years.
Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., a
friend of Hatch's, says it's typical for a senator, especially
one from the West, to spend about a third of the year or so in
the home state. But he says that's not ultimately what
matters.
"The real issue is not the
scorecard on how many times he's flapped his fanny in an
airplane," said Simpson. "It's how well he's worked for the
state of Utah."
tburr@sltrib.com
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