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Washington • A big majority of Utahns have a favorable opinion of Sen. Orrin Hatch, but, when reminded of his four decades in office, they also think he should retire instead of seeking election to an eighth term in 2018, a new poll shows.

Hatch's team disputed the survey, saying it was a "push poll" designed to elicit the desired responses.

The poll was commissioned by the right-wing Senate Conservatives Fund, which seeks to elect Republicans in the mold of Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who has been a top recipient of the group's campaign donations. The survey found that 72 percent of likely GOP caucus/primary voters in Utah view Hatch favorably.

The poll then posed a leading question, noting that Hatch has been in the Senate for 40 years and promised in 2012 not to run again. In response, 74 percent of those questioned said Hatch should retire, while 17 percent said he should run again in 2018.

"Sen. Orrin Hatch has done some good things, but after 40 years in the Senate, Utah Republicans think it's time for him to retire," said former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the president of the group that funded the poll.

"Hatch promised in his last campaign that this would be his last term, but now he's thinking about breaking that pledge and says voters are encouraging him to do it. That may be true, but the Utah Republicans who truly want him to run again are a very small minority. Most think it's time for him to retire."

Hatch, 82, said in 2012 that if elected then to a seventh six-year term, it would be his last.

He has walked that promise back and now is considering another run — a move he says is backed by many prominent Utahns and Senate colleagues who think that his role as Senate Finance chairman is too important to step away.

Dave Hansen, Hatch's former campaign manager and now an adviser, said Utahns have seen this before — where an out-of-state tea party group swings into Utah to try to "manipulate" the race.

"When you figure the way they phrase the question, that's basically biasing the question to start with," Hansen said.

He added that the favorable rating — which resulted from a straightforward question — is a more "telling result."

"People like the job that he's done," Hansen said. "Are they convinced he ought to run again? No, but give them some time."

Hatch's chief of staff, Rob Porter, said that the senator "appreciates support from the overwhelming majority of his constituents."

"His focus is on getting things done, and he has passed more constructive legislation than anyone else in the Senate this Congress," Porter said. "He's never been one to care much about political games played by Washington-based operatives."

Frank Luntz, a Republican consultant and pollster, attacked the Senate Conservatives Fund survey while praising Hatch.

"It's really sad that Utah now has the second most powerful, influential, impactful senator, and yet there is a tiny faction that wants to smear him. Push polling is beneath the people of Utah. And it's beneath the stature of Senator Hatch."

Then-Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., founded the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee, in 2008 as the tea-party movement gained ground. It has attacked long-serving members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. DeMint is also president of the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank.

The PAC gave then-candidate Mike Lee $62,827 in Lee's 2010 successful bid to unseat Sen. Bob Bennett, and bundled another $228,796, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The group gave Lee $5,000 this cycle.

The PAC sat out Hatch's 2012 re-election, giving no contributions to Hatch nor to his GOP opponent, former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist.

Hatch, first elected in 1976, is the Senate president pro tempore, which puts him third in line in presidential succession. As Finance chairman, he oversees regulation and laws dealing with the financial industry as well as the U.S. tax code.

The poll of 750 likely caucus or primary voters was conducted by Victory Phones, an automated polling company that says the survey has a margin of error of 3.6 percent.