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Internet businessman Pete Ashdown has announced that he will make another bid for the U.S. Senate, promising to run an innovative campaign and swearing off big donors.

"The balance of influence is titled, weighted, and pointed to those who have the cash to buy it," Ashdown said in his announcement. Technology can shift the balance back to the people, he argued.

Ashdown is the founder of Xmission, the Salt Lake City-based Internet company. He was the Democratic nominee for the seat in 2006, losing to Sen. Orrin Hatch by a sizeable margin.

Ashdown acknowledged that he made mistakes in that campaign, among them focusing too much attention criticizing Hatch.

"We did a lot of hammering on Hatch in that campaign," Ashdown said in an interview. "I just felt like it didn't do any good for me."

While Hatch is part of the problem in Washington, Ashdown said, he's not the only problem and there are bigger issues to address. One of them he wants to tackle is reforming the tax code to close loopholes for big corporations.

"My main beef with the tax code is, as a small-businessman, I don't have any loopholes on the marginal tax rate," he said, when big oil companies and others do. "When you have 80 percent of employment in America done through small business, the wealthy corporations need to pay their fair share."

Ashdown also said he won't run a campaign built on raising huge amounts of money.

"I do not pretend to channel the Founding Fathers, but when it comes the influence of money and government, I believe they would be ashamed," he said. "I will not seek [political action committee] funds, nor will I ever again. … I will not go begging to the those in Washington who continue to perpetrate this broken democracy."

Ashdown said he recognizes that, like any Democrat in Utah, he is an underdog to start the campaign, starting with a base of about 30 percent of the voters, and he'll need some breaks in order to win.

"The real question is: Can I close the gap on the 20 percent?" Ashdown said. "I'm in it to win it, obviously, but there's got to be some key game-changers between here and [next] November. Either the Republicans need to slip up or some of the ideas I have for uniquely running this race need to catch fire."