OGDEN — Both major 1st District congressional candidates declared Tuesday that they are running against Congress — even though one happens to be an incumbent. And both criticized Democrats — even though the challenger is one.

Then Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and Democrat Morgan Bowen said the way to truly change Congress is to elect him and not the other. Bishop says electing him is one less vote to keep Democrats in control. Bowen said many new faces such as his are needed to bring reform and clean up messes made by both parties.

"As the incumbent in this race, I am actually running against Congress, as odd as that may seem," Bishop said in a debate before the Exchange Club at the Ogden Golf and Country Club.

"Unfortunately, this has probably been the most dysfunctional year that Congress has ever had," Bishop said, blaming it on Democratic leaders. He said they often will not allow amendments to be considered in debate and will introduce major bills just hours before debate without prior committee consideration or time for close review.

"For the first time in history, not a single appropriations bill that was passed by committee was considered on the House floor," he said, adding that Democratic leaders failed to do that for fear Republicans might pass amendments to them that would call for more oil drilling.

"That's one of the reasons I am running again. I will not be a vote for (Democrat) Nancy Pelosi as speaker" of the House, Bishop said.

Bowen, meanwhile, said, "If we're going to have any kind of major change, you've got to elect a lot of new people in there."

He added, "I think both sides, Republican and Democrat, instead of pointing fingers at each other, ought to point fingers at themselves" and acknowledge they have a share of blame for problems in Washington. Bowen noted he spent recent years as an independent and only recently reregistered as a Democrat before he began his run.

He said some independent thinking is needed because "we need to look at fundamentally restructuring how we do business in Washington." He said members of Congress are now too beholden to big-money interests that give them campaign donations — and doing them favors may have been a root cause behind the economic meltdown.

"It's a dirty process," he said, likening donations from special interests to "legalized bribery." He added, "We have allowed a culture of 'me first' and 'give me all the money' to take over, and it has taken over both sides."

Bowen has previously criticized Bishop for recently taking $28,000 in donations from EnergySolutions officials and then not supporting a bill that would ban import of foreign radioactive waste — which it wants to bring to Utah. Bishop has said he would prefer allowing states themselves to decide if they want to ban or accept such waste.

While differing on how to change Congress and campaign finance reform, the candidates did agree on such things as opposing the recent $700 billion financial institution bailout, calling for less federal interference with education and seeking more energy independence.

---

E-mail: lee@desnews.com