Virus gives candidates more than a stomach ache.

• Position: On First Reading

It was a campaign mystery--at least for two Democratic legislators who ran for election in Utah: Right in the middle of their campaigns, the incumbents' computers were hit with a couple of particularly nasty viruses.

When Representative Trisha Beck, who was running for her fourth term, had her system lock up in the middle of campaign season, she and her husband, a computer salesmen, "spent weeks" trying to unravel the virulent program. Ultimately, he discovered a "spyware" program had been sent to his wife's computer that recorded every keystroke she made.

Beck was unable to solve the problem before the end of her campaign. She lost her bid for re-election by a narrow margin, 4,309-4,329. Her main concern during the campaign was her inability to respond to constituent e-mail. Beck, however, says it wasn't the first time she's confronted an unsavory computer problem.

Two years ago, her computer e-mailed out 250 pieces of child pornography. And at that time, she was the chair of the council on sex crime victims.

About as bad was the...