But if Mr. Matheson wants to level the playing field, I have an idea. Let's have both Doug and Jim resign from their day jobs. If Mr. Matheson is concerned about someone having an unfair advantage, it only stands to reason that he would be willing to resign from his seat in Congress and give up all of its attendant perks. Give up the taxpayer-funded mailing privileges (Matheson has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in free constituent mailings since taking office), give up his taxpayer funded PR machine that concocted the idea of the letter to KSL and then leaked it to the media, and give up the fund-raising advantage that incumbents have to raise millions of dollars in special interest money. Then we might have a fair fight on our hands.

I don't know if Doug Wright is going to run for Congress. With his years of experience in dealing with national, state and local issues, he would be a formidable candidate. Obviously the Matheson camp thinks so, too. More important, Doug would be an excellent congressman. A Matheson-Wright campaign would be a positive issue-oriented campaign that would serve the citizens of the 2nd District well — as long as the Matheson folks don't resort to silly political stunts like the letter to KSL. So let the race begin — sometime in March 2006.

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Gregory L. Hopkins is a former executive director of the Utah Republican Party, former chief of staff to Sen. Bob Bennett and was chairman of the Huntsman campaign during the past election.