GARN AD SAYS MCKAY TWISTED HANSEN RECORD

Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, has entered the mudslinging fray between 1st District Congressman Jim Hansen, R-Utah, and challenger Gunn McKay to chide McKay for twisting Hansen's voting

record.Peter Jenks, Hansen campaign manager, said that Garn agreed to tape a television commercial that began airing Wednesday morning. Garn disputes McKay's assertion that Hansen changed his vote on the 65 mph speed limit bill and dismisses McKay linking honorariums Hansen received while speaking to defense contractors to a soft voting record on Pentagon waste and fraud.

"Frankly, Jake (Garn) is furious about what he has seen in the ads," Jenks said. "He is very forcefully going to say that McKay is perpetrating the biggest distortion of a voting record in Utah history."

The Garn ad is the latest addition to three negative television ads that have heated up the state's closest congressional race. The campaigns aren't ruling out other ads. The latest Deseret News/KSL-TV poll showed McKay trailing by 10 percentage points.

McKay fired the first negative volley on Oct. 21 with an ad questioning Hansen's vote on the 65 mph speed limit bill. He then began airing the honorarium-defense vote ad last Wednesday. Last weekend Hansen began returning McKay's salvos with an ad saying that McKay voted to increase his pay by 5.5 percent in 1979.

The Mckay campaign said the most recent ad shows Hansen let personal gain come before protecting Utah's interest in national defense. Hansen responded by saying that he is opposed to "scoundrels' in the defense industry. While not disputing the fact he received $16,000 in honorariums from defense contractors in 1987, he said that he has voted for defense spending reforms.

"It disappoints me that McKay has given an inaccurate view of my position on procurement reform by attempting to mislead the people of Utah into believing that I vote against reform. The fact is, that I have voted for numerous procurement proposals and I will continue to vote for legislation I believe offers true reform," Hansen said.

Jenks said that McKay is being hypocritical. McKay accepted honorariums during his 10-year term in office but now supports abolishing them.

Hansen's acceptance of honorariums has been earlier questioned by McKay. Hansen missed a house vote on a catastrophic health care bill because he was in Las Vegas speaking. Hansen's record was highlighted in a front-page story in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal about honorarium abuse.