And while decrying the seniority system in Congress, Ashdown does not favor term limits. Let citizens decide each election who they want to serve, he says.

Noting that a recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll finds Hatch 42 percentage points ahead of Ashdown, 63-21 percent, Hansen says the Hatch strategy is just to keep talking about "what the senator will do over the next six years. We aren't really running against Pete." So unless Ashdown makes a significant push against Hatch, the senator probably won't even be mentioning some of Ashdown's more vulnerable positions.

If Hatch were being challenged by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, who is very popular in his 2nd Congressional District, "We'd probably have a different strategy" and go after the Democrat, Hansen admits.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com