Sen. Orrin Hatch sits in his rather small Salt Lake office and ponders his life.

"Being a U.S. senator is a wonderful opportunity to serve. That's why I went into it. It was not for the distinction. It wasn't the power."

But Hatch has certainly seen the distinction and power. Twenty-six years a U.S. senator. Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which approves all federal judges and U.S. attorneys. Presidential candidate in 2000. Fund-raiser extraordinaire. Composer of inspirational music. Vitamin supplement believer.

Hatch, 67, is No. 4 on the Deseret News' most powerful people list, picked by 30 Utah observers who know the ins and outs of influence in the state.

The senior senator's reach is certainly broad. Some may argue too broad.

Hatch himself laughs over jokes he's heard made about him: It's lucky he's not a woman — he never says no. He's never found an issue he won't take on, no matter how hopeless it appears.

"I'm still kind of an innocent, in some ways," says Hatch. "My staff tells me all the time" to watch which battles he takes on.

He "just couldn't help myself," he says with a twinkle in his eye, when in the mid-1980s he approached the president of U.S. Steel seeking an extension of negotiations between the steel giant and local Utahns Joe and Chris Cannon, who wanted to purchase U.S. Steel's plant in Utah County.

Although the Cannons asked Hatch not to get into the purchase price — they just wanted U.S. Steel to keep the gas-fired coke furnaces running while the purchase was negotiated — Hatch whittled down the price "by $10 million," the senator remembers with a smile.

Still, those examples dim compared to any number of major legislative victories over 25 years, the senator points out. He ticks off: the CHIP program that helps 7 million poor children get health insurance coverage, keeping the federal government out of overregulating the vitamin industry, saving (along with Rep. Jim Hansen) Hill Air Force Base from closing; getting more Immigration and Naturalization Service and Drug Enforcement Agency agents, pushing the Central Utah Project, protecting composers and other copyright properties.

Hatch said it's an honor to serve. And he worries every day "how I can best help my people — the people of Utah."