PROVO — Chris Cannon agreed during a debate Wednesday night that Utah needs a stronger Democratic Party with candidates like Beau Babka, his opponent in his bid to retain his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"I think I'm the Democrat of the future in Utah," said Babka, a member of the LDS Church and self-described moderate Democrat, during a debate televised by KBYU.

"I hope he is the Democrat of the future in Utah," Cannon said, "because then we'd have better, more articulate, engaged debate in Utah."

Cannon has served longer than any other congressman from Utah's 3rd District — four terms — and he isn't ready to step aside for Babka, a captain in the South Salt Lake Police Department and instructor at Salt Lake Community College.

"I don't feel the need to help Democrats," Cannon said, "but I'd like to see the Democratic Party embrace issues important to the people of Utah. I'd like to see them disassociate from federal Democrats or pull national Democrats closer to where Utahns want them to be, more centrist and away from the fringes."

Babka predicted Utahns will come to overlook party affiliation and study the quality of the candidates.

"I'm one of those who can bring balance, a regular person's view, to Utah politics," he said. "Balance is good in everything. The opposition is good. I believe the future holds a more balanced two-party system in Utah."

The debate's moderator, Kelly Patterson, sparked an interesting exchange when he asked the candidates to predict how they would rank on one group's "Presidential Support Score" if they were elected and the opposition party's candidate won the White House.

Babka said, "I would imagine if President Bush were re-elected, I'd be up in the 75th percentile."

"That's good," Cannon said. "Assuming Sen. Kerry stuck to the positions he's taken on the campaign trail, I'd be in the 20-30-40 percent range. I'd probably be about 30 percent, which is where I think I was with the (Clinton) administration."

The candidates disagreed on Amendment 3, the proposal to define marriage in Utah's constitution as between a man and a woman. Cannon supports the amendment, but Babka said that while he approves of the definition, he believes the language of the amendment goes too far.

There also was a difference over Social Security. Babka said the federal government must manage it better while Cannon called that impossible and backed a privatized system.

However, the two found common ground on assault weapons; neither believes the ban on such weapons should be reinstituted.