In one of the nation's most closely watched and nastiest congressional races, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, appeared headed for re-election early Wednesday by what exit polls projected to be a surprising 16 to 18 percentage point margin, even though Republicans far outnumber Democrats in Utah's 2nd District.

"It looks good. I'm confident we're going to end up on top," Matheson said. "I am pleased that honesty and integrity won out in this election" — referring to hard-hitting, negative ads against him by Republican John Swallow.

Swallow was not conceding anything at press time. "We want to watch the numbers for a while and look for trends," he said. He also did not apologize for his attack ads. "In mid-September, we were down by 34 points. It's hard to come back from that far down against an incumbent. But once we started talking about his record, we closed the gap."

A Dan Jones & Associates exit poll for KSL projected Matheson as the winner with a 57-41 percent margin over Swallow, and a Brigham Young University exit poll similarly projected a 58-40 percent win for Matheson.

Matheson was the only bright spot for Democrats in local congressional races. Incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett and Reps. Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop, all R-Utah, also all appeared headed for easy re-election, according to exit polls and early partial returns. (See results on page A15.)

News also appeared bright for Republicans nationally in Congress. They won enough seats to ensure they will continue control of both the House and Senate.

Democrats had needed to gain just two seats to seize control of the Senate and just 12 to control the House. With such thin margins, Utah's 2nd District race became important nationally, because it was considered one of only 30 House races in the country that were truly competitive. Also two years ago Matheson's winning margin was less than 1 percent: 48.69 to 47.71 percent.

With the stakes high, more than $4 million from around the nation poured into the race — and produced ads that were unusually negative and hard-hitting for Utah.

It included some missteps, such as when Republican ads blasted Matheson for supporting an immigration bill that they failed to note was sponsored by Cannon and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah — and national and state Republicans blamed each other for that. In another instance, they attacked Matheson for supporting Medicare reform, which they failed to mention was actually the version pushed by President Bush and congressional GOP leaders.

Still, the negative ads seemed to help Swallow for a time to close the gap on Matheson. But Matheson said, with what was projected to be a big win, that he hopes the attack ads this year do not set a precedent for future elections.