EAGLE - With just days left before the election, the campaigns of Democratic U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick and Republican Raul Labrador were at full speed, fueled by hundreds of volunteers.

This serious effort comes in the final days before voters go to the polls and decided whether to give Minnick a second term or send Labrador to Washington, D.C., as part of the electoral wave expected to sweep Republican into power in the U.S. House.

Labrador met with supporters in Eagle on Saturday morning as they prepared to make his final campaign pitch. Minnick, whose team started laying the groundwork for his re-election campaign a year ago, planned to spend time with family and visit volunteers working to get out the vote.

Minnick also traveled to south-central Idaho on Saturday to attend a memorial service for the friends and family of state Sen. Clint Stennett, who died this month after a long battle with brain cancer.

Republicans are hungry to reclaim Idaho's 1st Congressional District from Minnick, a Democrat. But Minnick has proven a formidable obstacle, voting against the health care overhaul bill and the federal bailouts, taking a hard stance against earmarks and swearing off so-called pork barrel requests during his first term.

Minnick built an early lead in this western state that has long been dominated by Republicans, though recent polls show the race has since tightened and each side predicts a close finish.

Labrador, a two-term state lawmaker and immigration attorney from Eagle, was relatively unknown outside of southwestern Idaho before he upset decorated Iraq veteran Vaughn Ward in the May primary.

"Minnick took care of that," Labrador said Saturday.

Labrador was referring to Minnick campaign ads. The first ad began airing in September that said illegal immigration was good business for Labrador because more than half his legal work helps illegal immigrants "stay in the United States."

Labrador responded by calling Minnick a hypocrite, since his law firm helped Minnick finalize the adoption of a daughter from China. The contest turned uglier from there, with more attack ads and repeated digs.

At a tea party forum, Labrador mocked Minnick for telling a reporter: "Congress is no different than a Kiwanis Club, or a corporate board ... You do things mostly by consensus and because of personal relationships."

Labrador told the tea party activists: "According to him, you go to Washington to be part of a social club ... I guess that's what happens when you grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth."

Labrador, 42, was born in Puerto Rico to a single mother. They moved to Nevada when he was 13. A graduate of Brigham Young University and the University of Washington, Labrador moved to Boise with his wife in 1996 and has his own law firm.

Minnick, 68, grew up on a wheat farm in the small town of Walla Walla, Wash. He moved to Idaho in 1974. The Harvard graduate and former Nixon administration staffer made millions as a Boise forest products executive.

During debates, Minnick denounces his opponent as an far-right extremist who would be useless in Congress.

"A person this far outside of the mainstream is going to have almost no influence in an evenly divided Congress where people have to work together to solve the real problems," Minnick said.

The bickering came to a head when the Labrador and Minnick met at the Boise City Club forum on Thursday for their last public appearance together and fought over who had been more misleading in their attacks on one another.

"They both sound terrible," one woman muttered under her breath on her way out the door after the forum ended.

Minnick and Labrador agree on the need to limit federal spending and have similar stances on illegal immigration, though Labrador is quick to remind voters he is an expert in this arena.

But when it comes to their differences, they often paint each other with broad brushes.

Where Labrador sees himself as a hard-core conservative who seldom compromises his principles, Minnick conjures the image of a "fringe" candidate who would lobby for a return to the gold standard and would eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, along with other tea party-supported reforms.

Where Minnick sees himself as an independent who has voted 78 percent of the time with Republicans, Labrador pounces on the widespread unpopularity of Washington D.C. and President Barack Obama, lumping Minnick in with the "failed administration" that has yet to cure the nation's economic woes.

After months of canvassing a congressional district that spans the length of western Idaho, Labrador and Minnick have largely made their case at this point.

Online: Minnick campaign: http://waltminnick.com Labrador campaign: http://www.labrador4idaho.com