By comparison, that was significantly more than the $101,000 spent by all Salt Lake City Council candidates combined in this year's municipal election.

Hatch's PAC gave between $5,000 and $10,000 each to 18 of the current 48 other Republican U.S. senators, even though none faced election this year. Bennett's leadership PAC gave similar gifts to 10 GOP senators, plus one GOP challenger running for the Senate.

Bennett's PAC also gave $10,000 to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, and Hatch's gave it $5,000. Hatch and Bennett each also gave $15,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Some big-name donors are helping to provide such gift money for Hatch's PAC. His donors include Earl Holding, owner of Sinclair Oil, Little America and Snowbasin ski resort; Patrick Byrne, chief of Overstock.com; Amway president Richard Devos, who is also chairman of the Orlando Magic; Morton's Restaurant Group chairman Thomas Baldwin; and Humana president Michael McCallister.

Many donors potentially have interest in Hatch's legislative work. For example, his PAC received more than $1.3 million this year from executives or PACs in the health-care industry. Hatch is a member of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees that industry.

The most that any identifiable group gave to Bennett's PAC was at least $55,500 from finance industry PACs. Legislation affecting that industry is overseen by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, of which Bennett is a longtime member.

Hatch formed his group "basically to help fellow Republican senators and candidates in their campaigns" and not to further his own chance at such things as leadership positions, said Dave Hansen, a Hatch campaign consultant and spokesman.

Bennett formed his also "to raise money to support other campaigns" and to do it without dipping into "funds raised for his (own) re-election campaign," said his press secretary, Emily Christensen. She added he does not plan to run for a future leadership post, so money from the PAC is not designed to further such an ambition.

Donation funnel?

Do the PACs allow end runs around donation limits?

Consider, for example, that Promise Healthcare CEO Peter Baronoff of Florida had given maximum-possible donations to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the Senate re-election funds of John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Baronoff also gave Hatch's leadership PAC $2,500. Hatch's PAC gave donations to Romney, Cornyn and McConnell, so maybe some extra money from limit-capped Baronoff made it to those candidates via the donation to Hatch's PAC.