The Utah Republican senator has officially become under fire from one of the most influential conservative PACs in the country: FreedomWorks.

FreedomWorks plans a “Retire Orrin Hatch” campaign beginning this Saturday at the Utah Republican Convention. Hatch is pictured below:

According to the Daily Caller:

Among grievances FreedomWorks has with Hatch is they say is a legislative history of voting to increase the debt ceiling 16 times, voting in support of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation and voting against a ban on earmarks.

Hatch’s campaign manager Dave Hansen had this to say:

If FreedomWorks is anxious to spend their money, why not put it into defeating Barack Obama in the presidential race?” Hatch’s campaign manager, Dave Hansen told the conservative blog The Daily Caller. “There is no other person, in recent history, who has been such a major affront to the Constitution and conservative values than our current president.”

Hansen claims Hatch has a 90% rating from the American Conservative Union, a 97% rating from the Club for Growth and the highest rating in Congress from the American Taxpayers Union. However Club for Growth’s Communications Director Barney Keller added this correction:

I wanted to note for you that while Sen. Hatch did, in fact, receive a 97% (not 100%) on our scorecard for 2010, he has a 74% lifetime rating, placing him towards the bottom of Republicans serving in the Senate in 2010,” Keller wrote in an email.

FreedomWorks believes it is time for Senator Hatch to retire. There is a possibility that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT #3) will run in the primary for his seat, in which case the Club for Growth’s President Chris Chocola tells us Chaffetz will have their full support.