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(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Doug Owens shakes hands with Mia Love before the 4th District candidates answered questions separately at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, Thursday, September 25, 2014

4th District Owens endorses full Medicaid expansion; Love wants states to have the reins.

The top candidates in Utahs 4th Congressional District tackled questions about government dysfunction, immigration reform and transportation funding in separate appearances before the states business leaders Thursday.

The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce planned on hosting a debate between Republican Mia Love and Democrat Doug Owens, but Love balked. She declined to participate in a joint event and asked to appear first.

Owens made light of the situation. "I would have liked to have been together with my opponent for you today, so you could have seen us side by side," he told the 40 business executives on hand. "Apparently, they seem to think we are matter and anti-matter and if we ever meet, there is going to be some kind of cosmic explosion."

The two candidates, who did shake hands at the event held in the Salt Lake Chambers board room, have had just one joint public appearance sponsored by the Utah Taxpayers Association, where Owens sought to paint Love as an extreme partisan and she decried what she considered a personal attack.

The 4th District contest appears to be one of the closest races in the state and is the only House campaign without an incumbent.

Love, who lost to Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in 2012, is the front-runner in recent polls.

She has agreed to only one debate, a head-to-head showdown Oct. 14 in KUEDs University of Utah studios that will have a small, select live audience and air live on seven television stations and be live-streamed by The Salt Lake Tribune.

Love argued that any debates should be open to voters.

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Love, Owens split on health care, immigration in non-debate