Is Rep. Jim Matheson "disingenuous?"

Is his GOP challenger, John Swallow, "desperate" and "not honest?"

With six weeks left in the 2004 2nd Congressional District race, the name calling has begun.

Swallow is nearing the finish line in his second straight challenge to Matheson, D-Utah, in a district that leans Republican. While Swallow says he is closer, better financed and more focused than in 2002, a recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows him 30 percentage points behind.

And it appears Swallow is taking his campaign to a new level.

"I'm talking about his record in Congress," Swallow said after issuing a press release sharply criticizing Matheson for accepting "bundled" contributions from the anti-war group Council for a Livable World. "And I'm going to keep drawing comparisons."

"It's abhorrent to me that Matheson is naive enough to tell his constituents he is working towards protecting our borders through a strong military and then quietly take money from a disarmament group with an anti-military record like (the council)," Swallow said in a press release this week.

"Matheson cannot possibly claim to provide our soldiers with the technology they need and then strip them of their weapons," he added.

"That's why I call him Jumpin' Jim Matheson — he says one thing in Utah and acts another" in Congress, Swallow said.

Swallow is perhaps trying to tie Matheson to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., accused of not taking consistent stands on the war in Iraq.

After saying the media shouldn't even report such tripe, Matheson said Swallow "is not being honest" to question his dedication and steadfastness in supporting the U.S. military.

"He cannot point to one vote, not one, where I didn't vote for a defense-spending bill," Matheson said. To insinuate that he doesn't support America's men and women in arms "is absolutely false — ask him why the Veterans of Foreign Wars have endorsed me twice, and not John Swallow."

Matheson stopped short of calling Swallow a liar — but just short.

"He's desperate. He's 30 points behind in the polls. But the real reason (the council) supports me is my strong stand against renewed nuclear testing in Nevada — something John, as reported (in a southern Utah newspaper), supports," Matheson said.

"Wait a minute. No I don't!" responded Swallow. "I do not support resuming weapons testing. I never said it. I won't say it. I'm exactly like Jim on that issue, regardless of what some article may say."

Swallow said that in the 2002 race — which he lost to Matheson by less than 1 percent of the vote — "I didn't let voters know the differences between us."

That was, in part, because Matheson had only been in office 18 months when the campaign really began and hadn't taken that many votes, said Swallow.

"But now he has four years of voting, and people are going to hear this (election) about the clear distinctions between" the two.

"These kinds of attacks are just starting," Matheson said. "We'll see them for the next six weeks" until Election Day. "Throwing out this rhetoric . . . , he's trying to inflame voters. He has nothing to back it up, and it's not true."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com