PROVO — The axiom is old, tried and truer than ever. Win election to the U.S. House of Representatives and your re-election campaign begins at the same time as your two-year term.

The incumbent pressure created by that short cycle has produced a political system where congressional staffers also work on campaigns. Ethics rules don't allow staff members to work on campaigns while on congressional time or to use congressional resources, so staffers either join the campaign as unpaid volunteers or take a separate paycheck from the campaign, too.

Paying his staff to work for his office and his campaign has Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, under fire from two Republican challengers as the May 10 state GOP convention nears.

Cannon earned a sixth term in Congress in November 2006 but knew less than two months later that he would be challenged in 2008 by Jason Chaffetz, the former campaign manager and chief of staff for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. Former Juab County Attorney David Leavitt joined the race in May 2007.

Nearly a year later, Chaffetz and Leavitt are criticizing Cannon's long practice of paying several congressional staffers to help with his campaign effort, though a University of Utah political scientist said the practice is common and acceptable if not abused.

Nathan Rathbun, Megan Faulkner Brown and Ryan Frandsen are among those who have doubled as congressional and campaign staffers for Cannon. Rathbun has averaged $30,000 a year as a regular staffer and $25,000 a year as a campaign manager for the past three years. Frandsen is a field coordinator for the congressional office but this year has added duties that essentially make him Cannon's new campaign manager.

Chaffetz and Leavitt said they, if elected, would run Utah's 3rd Congressional District office differently.

"I think every taxpayer should be outraged their tax dollars are going to staffers who were working on a congressional campaign," Chaffetz said. "There's an ethical wall and you're not supposed to be on both sides of it. That's why there's a wall. It's a huge conflict of interest. There's supposed to be a distinguishing difference between campaign staff and congressional staff.

"I saw this up close and personal when I worked for the governor. I know how poorly (Cannon's) congressional office is run. This is one of the things they do that is fundamentally wrong. There should be no taxpayer support for a congressional campaign. When you use congressional staffers to work on a campaign, you're stepping over the line."

Leavitt said people in the district often notice Cannon staffers campaigning for Cannon while handing out business cards that say they are part of his office staff.