"I'm sure we addressed the same number of mailings to men and women," said Heyrend.

But these recent two mailers did indeed go into more conservative areas of Matheson's large 2nd District, she said. The protect-children mailer went into areas in Sandy, Draper and northern Utah County. A second mailer with the theme of immigration went into the Uinta Basin and Iron and Washington counties, "areas where immigration is probably more of an issue," Heyrend said.

Matheson actually uses a rather sophisticated process in identifying and tracking constituent contacts and interests, she said. Every time a person contacts Matheson's congressional office, either through e-mail, telephone call or letter, the person's address and concerns are catalogued.

Constituent themes, or concerns, are then charted by geographic areas. And official frank mailings are targeted for those areas. "If Mrs. Chaffetz got a mailer about how the congressman is helping protect children and families, it's because those were the concerns in those areas," said Heyrend. "I'm sure Republican (congressmen) are sending out franked mailings this year as well. We are not going to stop communicating with our constituents. Our mailings were approved by the House's franking commission, which follows very strict rules in approving all franked mailings."

But Chaffetz said that Matheson's recent mailing "is clearly a political piece. And as a taxpayer, I don't like paying for it. Let his campaign pay for this kind of campaign literature. Matheson should reimburse the federal treasury for the cost of his campaign piece."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com