Congressional candidate Brad Zaun says he not concerned by negative campaign ads being run against him because he has the prayers of his fellow Republicans.

Zaun spoke Saturday night at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fall banquet. “A lot of people have come up to me tonight and said, ‘We’re praying for you Brad,’ and, you know, I cannot thank you enough for that,” Zaun said. “And when they do that, they kind of grab me, like ‘Are you all right? Is everything all right?’ Of course I’m all right — because of the prayers, the power of prayers.”

Zaun is challenging Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell this fall and Boswell’s campaign is running an ad critical of Zaun for a lack of “personal responsibility” for failing to pay overdue taxes. Zaun accuses Boswell’s campaign of engaging in “personal” attacks.

“My mom and dad raised me to respect the people that are around you and I’m going to continue to do that and, you know, I’ve said many times during the campaign that Congressman Boswell is a nice man. He’s had honorable service to our country…I just respect him,” Zaun said.  “But I feel very passionate about what’s going on and it’s unfortunate how these ads and how these campaigns are run.”

Another ad — run by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — shows Zaun stating his opposition to tax breaks for biofuels.  Zaun has changed his position and now supports the tax break for ethanol, but Zaun hasn’t decided whether he would vote to extend the tax credit for soybean-based biodiesel.

Zaun told the crowd on Saturday night that he is not “going to sell (his) soul” to get elected to congress. “But I can tell you what I’m going to do is I’m going to continue to talk about solutions,” Zaun said. “And I would challenge Congressman Boswell just one time, in one ad, just give us a solution to the problems we have in this country.”

Zaun is running two ads.  One criticizes several of Boswell’s votes in congress and another says Boswell “just doesn’t understand” the state of the economy. Zaun served as mayor of the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale for six years before being elected to the state senate in 2004.

Listen to Zaun’s very brief remarks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition banquet: Zaun