"The 2nd District constituents hired him to represent them. It's his job" to do that, she said. "You are not sent back to Congress to make some kind of personal statement."

Shepherd said she followed what she calls her three "Cs" — constituents, country and conscience. "You vote what your constituents want, then what's good for the country, then your conscience."

Matheson says he's proud to be a Democrat — as he, not others, define it.

And he will never vote like GOP Utah Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon.

In the National Journal's rankings on key partisan votes in 2003, out of 229 Republicans Bishop has only 12 Republicans who voted more often for the GOP/Bush line than he. Bishop voted with Bush 91 percent of the time. Cannon had only 10 Republicans vote more with the president; a 93 percent concurrence rating.

While not criticizing the colleagues' voting record, Matheson said, "I'm not a rubber stamp for any party."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com