CHEYENNE --Wyoming's three Republican candidates for Congress said Friday experience in the Legislature counts --and their opponents lack it.

The Democrats responded that people want change.

The Democratic candidates "haven't voted for a single piece of legislation," said Wyoming's senior U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, a former Gillette mayor who served five years in the Legislature.

Enzi said he could not imagine hiring someone to fix a car who had no mechanical experience.

"It makes a difference," he said.

Chris Rothfuss, Enzi's Democratic challenger for the state's six-year term, said, "If you want three career politicians, then they're the ones you are going to vote for.

"They're the ones that failed us. They don't have much else they can say. They can't talk about the issues."

Rothfuss, a chemical engineer and instructor at University of Wyoming who has worked in the U.S. Department of State, said voters should look at the Democrats' professional records.

Voters will see that the experience of the Democratic candidates helps them bring a fresh view to issues such as energy, health care and the economy, he added.

The two sitting U.S. senators spent a good portion of a news conference in the State Capitol touting U.S. House candidate Cynthia Lummis' experience as a legislator for 14 years and state treasurer for eight years. They mentioned their own as well.

Lummis is in a tight race with Democrat Gary Trauner, according to polls released over the past couple of weeks.

A Cheyenne attorney and rancher, Lummis said she has worked with two Democratic governors and across the aisle in the statehouse.

"I learned so much" as a legislator and treasurer, Lummis said. "I think (the lessons) have fared me well."

She said her experience in state government has taught her about the values of the state's people in different regions. And it prepared her to begin work with the senators right after the election, she said.

Trauner, a Wilson businessman, said, "Some of those people (in Congress) have been there for 30 years and look at how screwed up Congress is."

He said Republicans and Democrats in Wyoming want to move away from partisan politics and entrenched politicians.

"Gov. Dave (Freudenthal) never had elective office experience," Trauner added.

Democrat Freudenthal had not run for elective office before the campaign for his first term in 2002.

Freudenthal won a second term by a landslide in 2006 in a state where there about twice as many Republicans as Democrats.

A Mason Dixon poll of 400 likely voters in Wyoming, interviewed Aug. 13-15, found 81 percent approve of Freudenthal's performance, with an error of plus or minus 5 percent.

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said his five years in the Legislature taught him how to stop bad legislation, build coalitions, write bills and amendments acceptable to both sides and anticipate unintended consequences of legislation.

Barrasso, a Casper physician, said, "It's that education that prepared me so I could be ready on day one."

Barrasso is running to fill the four years left in the term of the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo. Freudenthal appointed him from three Republican choices offered by the state party. Lummis was among those choices.

Gillette attorney Nick Carter is his Democratic challenger.

"Considering the current state of affairs, that (experience) might be a negative," said Eric Hevenor, campaign manager for Carter.

He added that the Republican candidates represent "let's do more of the same."

He cited votes by Barrasso as being against health insurance for children, against Medicare coverage for seniors and soldiers and against a wind energy tax credit.

"That's not the kind of experience that people want," Hevenor said.

Barrasso has explained the health-care votes as being against expansion of social programs and increased deficit spending.

He has said he was forced to vote against the wind energy tax credit because it was lumped in with other energy tax measures that were bad.