WASHINGTON — An anti-tobacco group is urging Sen. Orrin Hatch and others who have taken campaign contributions from tobacco companies to return them and pledge to support stronger regulations on tobacco products.

The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund included Hatch, a Republican representing Utah, on its Top 10 List of senators getting contributions from "Big Tobacco." Hatch received $16,000 from tobacco companies for this election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission reports analyzed by the action fund and Common Cause, a government accountability advocacy group.

"The tobacco companies have been found guilty of a 50-year conspiracy of lies, deception, disease and death, and of continuing to violate the law, but members of Congress are still taking millions of dollars from them and failing to take action to protect kids," said William V. Corr, executive director of the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund. "Our leaders should stand up to the tobacco companies, return their contributions and reject future donations from this rogue industry."

Hatch said he made a decision early in his political career that if a group decided to give him money because what he does in Washington is good for the state and the country, as long as it was a legal group, he would take it.

"They know, and I have told them, that I do not support their products, so I have no idea why these groups would want to support me," Hatch said. "But I would guess that it is because I am a strong, pro-business conservative."

Hatch said he did sponsor a bill in the last Congress that restricted the sale of tobacco to minors over the Internet, which the industry supported.

" I don't believe anyone would find a problem with my joining them in these efforts," Hatch said.

The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund and Common Cause focused on a court opinion handed down last month, where U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler found that major cigarette manufacturers violated civil racketeering laws by deceiving the public about the dangers of smoking and their marketing to children, according to the group.

"Despite court findings that tobacco companies hurt the public interest by lying about the dangers of smoking and marketing products to children, the cigarette makers through generous campaign contributions have maintained access and influence to members of Congress who are supposed to be protecting the public good," said Common Cause President Chellie Pingree. "The tobacco industry and its allies continue to buy their way around Capitol Hill at the public's peril."

But Hatch said it is "easy to play with the numbers and play a game of gotcha.

"The true test is to look at the totals of all the interests that have supported my campaigns in the past," Hatch said. "You'll see that the donations from this interest group are negligible — not even 1 percent of the total money I've raised."

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