In a full-page brochure sent out last weekend, Matheson's campaign notes that Swallow, a former state legislator, voted against criminal background checks for child-care providers in 1999.

"An FBI national background check costs a little more, but what's a few cents when it could mean saving the innocence of a child?" the mailing asks in a box superimposed over a hazy photo of a man. "It's a good thing for John Swallow that kids can't vote."

Matheson justifies the apparent turn in his mostly positive campaign advertising to Swallow's and the National Republican Congressional Committee's unrelenting barrage of mailings, phone calls and television ads characterizing the incumbent Democrat as a pro-choice, anti-family, tax-and-spend liberal.

While Matheson's mailing was arriving in Utah voters' mailboxes, so was another card from the Utah Republican Party charging that the congressman wants to "give away" each Utah family's $600 share of the state's higher education budget "to those who are here illegally. Jim Matheson is leading the fight in Congress to allow the children of illegal immigrants - who don't pay into the system - the right to pay in-state tuition for college."

The mailing doesn't note that both Republican Congressman Chris Cannon and Sen. Orrin Hatch have introduced such legislation in Congress or the fact that the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature adopted a similar law two years ago.

"I've been beaten up for four weeks," Matheson says. "With over $1 million coming from the national Republicans to misrepresent my record, I think people should know both of our records."

Swallow did not return a phone calls seeking comment about the Matheson mailing. During a debate at the University of Utah last week, Swallow acknowledged his campaign tactics are "distasteful." But he said he needs to report the incumbent's "record."

Both candidates are treading dangerously close to turning off Utah voters sensitive to hard-hitting advertising common in other states. Pollster Dan Jones notes that negative attacks can backfire.

"You've got to be real careful," said Jones, who acknowledged his firm would be surveying voters about the impact of the advertising in the 2nd District race.

Matheson has charged that Swallow and the national Republicans are misrepresenting both the legislation and his votes in their advertisements. For example, a bill the Republicans characterize as authorizing "taxpayer-funded abortions" in fact requires U.S. military personnel overseas to pay for abortions at military hospitals, Matheson says. Swallow also has chosen to focus on just one of Matheson's votes on the federal Partial Birth Abortion Act, rather than his final vote in favor of the bill.

The congressman says his Republican challenger's use of photos and film of children in his advertisements and mailings prodded him into his own analysis of Swallow's record on children's issues. In contrast to Swallow's "distortions," Matheson says, his mailing is based on fact. The bill requiring background checks for child-care workers ultimately became Utah law, in spite of Swallow's opposition.

"Why would you not vote to have background checks for people working a child-care facility?" Matheson asked. "The rest of the Legislature didn't agree with John Swallow on this issue and neither do I."