BOUNTIFUL — The reality of things can be ignored a long time, but “we’re at the point we have to do something” to change that reality, U.S. Senate candidate Dan Liljenquist said Tuesday.

“I really don’t think the generation that brought us in will lead us out,” he said of the economic downturn and accompanying federal deficit.

“We have to have leaders that are willing to address the problems and I don’t think we can depend on those in Washington” to fix things, the Bountiful resident said in a meeting with Clipper Publisher R. Gail Stahle and the paper’s editorial board.

Noting that he has attended 271 public meetings since Jan. 4, Liljenquist said “elections are about the future. My wife Brooke and I feel really good. We feel this is the time. We feel we’ve got a decent chance.”

The candidate said his name recognition across the state has risen from about 10 percent to “above 60 percent now,” with hundreds of volunteers campaigning for him.

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