Deseret News | Shift in House control hurt or help Utahns?

Shift in House control hurt or help Utahns?

Deseret News

Published: Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006 9:53 p.m. MST

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LaVar Christensen is clearly more conservative than Jim Matheson. But answers from both 2nd Congressional District candidates to a Deseret Morning News questionnaire greatly differ on only one point: Whether Democrats winning control of the U.S. House will bring disaster to Utah and the United States.

Christensen, a state GOP House member from Draper, paints a dismal picture should Democrats win control in the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Matheson hopes for more fiscal conservatism and reasoned approaches to a number of America's challenges — the United States may gain, not suffer, from a change in power in the U.S. House.

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Candidate Q & A: Jim Matheson

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National political pundits predict that Democrats will win control of the 435-member House. Republicans hold a 15-seat majority. Democrats will win at least 20 GOP seats, maybe as many as 40, political observers have said recently.

If that happens, Christensen predicts "abandonment of Iraq," higher gasoline prices and "declining moral standards." A U.S. House led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi "of San Francisco" will "set in motion a dangerous shift in the direction of our country."

A Democratic majority in the House will "endlessly go after the president, raise taxes, eliminate our missile defense system, deny access to federal lands and harm oil production here.

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