An unprecedented battle of the TV and radio airwaves between Rep. Jim Matheson and Mia Love in Utah’s 4^th Congressional District race is now taking place.

It’s difficult to watch a commercial TV channel at night or in the early morning without seeing ads for and against each candidate.

Millions of dollars is being spent, much of it, if not most of it, by political parties PACs that are outside of the candidates’ campaigns.

The truth is being stretched, to say the least, by all sides.

Who can one believe?

Well, when I’m challenged to see what is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (as Perry Mason may say), I’m always drawn to the candidates’ individual web sites first, then to places like YouTube to find the ads that are being run and rerun.

That allows me to see what the candidates dare to say themselves, and what everyone else is saying about them.

Love’s web site is here.

Matheson’s is here.

Both have pretty good web sites, with Love coming out ahead in video production and high tech stuff, I believe.

Matheson has for some time been saying that if 4^th District voters really get to know what Love stands for, they will find her too radical for even this red state.

Specifically, Matheson is honing in on some of Love’s early budget-cutting ideas.

You can see a link to Mia’s early budget proposals here.

I say early ideas, because her stands have evolved and become more defined over time.

Still, this budget message, sent last spring to GOP state delegates and others, shows how conservative Love may be on the federal budget if she is elected.

And if all that she advocates in the mailer were to become law, Utah would no doubt suffer economically.

One reason the Utah Transit Authority has built so many projects recently is because it has gotten federal grants and used federal programs that likely would be eliminated, or curtailed, if Love became the national budget queen.

(Of course, she won’t be, even if elected. She would be a freshman in the GOP majority in the U.S. House. And while national Republicans would love to have Love become the first GOP African-American female representative, how much the old boys would listen to her is another matter entirely.)

But Love says there must be shared responsibility and sacrifice if America is to get its fiscal house in order.

Big changes must come, she says.

And, says Love, as a Democrat – even a moderate Democrat – Matheson isn’t going to get it done. The more liberal wing to the national Democratic Party will rule the day in the U.S. House and Senate.

All that Matheson will do is to vote in Democratic leaders, should his become the majority again by winning enough seats to take back the 435-member U.S. House, she says.

Meanwhile, Matheson is reaching back to remind Utahns just how grounded he is in this state.

For the first time I can remember he has a campaign ad featuring his wife, a medical doctor, along with his kids.

Once again, his mom, former Utah First Lady Norma Matheson, is in a TV ad for him – reminding voters how much the Mathesons are loved in this state and how much son Jim is like his late father, former Gov. Scott M. Matheson. That new ad is here.

Love, meanwhile, is tying herself to Mitt Romney, and has an ad up doing that now. You can see it here.

Will Romney’s considerable coattails in Utah be enough to drive Matheson from office?

Certainly Utah Democrats need to fear that.

So, it is a black woman against a white man.

In Utah, that normally would be a Democratic woman against a Republican man.

A challenger against the incumbent.

But this race is on its head; the other way around.

Love, the Republican, is challenging the 12-year incumbent, Democrat Matheson.

Matheson et al. is running on how independent he is.

Norma recalls how husband Scott challenged then-Democratic President Jimmy Carter on issues, and won.

Love is saying how Matheson, his party and President Barack Obama have screwed up America. And it will take someone like her and the Republicans to set it right.

The question Matheson wants voters to consider is: How far to the right?

GOP insiders are telling me they see the race as Love’s to lose.

Can she appear knowledgeable? Get past the unique face she presents and beat Matheson on the issues?

Utah Democrats worry that Matheson may have made a critical mistake in jumping from his newly-drawn 2^nd District into a new 4^th District, where even long-time residents haven’t seen Matheson’s name on a ballot in a decade.

And both Love and Matheson are wondering what kind of outside TV ad campaigns will show up in the final six weeks of the campaign.

Hold on. This one is going to get rocky before it’s over.