As the dean of Utah pollsters, Dan Jones has long been aware of Randy Horiuchi's impact on the political scene, but even he was surprised by the latest surveys.

"I've never seen anything like it," Jones said. "I can't think of any county commissioner who has ever been as widely recognized or provoked such strong opinions, favorable and unfavorable."Which is a politic way of saying people all over Utah know Horiuchi and either love him or hate him. Ask Horiuchi how he came to be so famous/infamous, and he'll tell you, "It's because I'm such an active guy; I get involved."

Horiuchi first got involved in politics at the age of 18, when he ran for the Granite District Board of Education. Though he lost the race, he discovered he had a taste and a knack for politics.

Joining the Democratic Party, he became an energetic campaigner for former Sen. Ted Moss and other Democrats in the 1970s. At the same time, he finished his college education and began his career as an educator. He says teaching helped prepare him for poli-tics.

"I was trained on the front lines. In teaching, you have to deal with hundreds of different personalities on a daily basis, and where you have to set and meet specific goals every day for 180 days a year," Horiuchi said. "It's the same thing in government, except that it's 365 days a year."

After three years as the debate teacher at Kearns High School, Horiuchi moved on to what he candidly describes as greener pastures. He was hired by the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce for "about triple what I was making as a teacher."

After leaving that job, he formed his own lobbying-consulting business and focused his energies almost exclusively on partisan politics. In 1982, when Democratic candidates were dropping like flies, Horiuchi salvaged a victory for the late sheriff Pete Hayward.

By the mid-1980s, he had achieved a reputation as a master political strategist and tireless party worker. In 1985 and again in 1987, Democrats picked him to be their state chairman. It was from that pulpit that Horiuchi first sprang onto TV screens and into newspapers throughout the state.

Under his high-profile stewardship, Democrats emerged from almost total obliteration to regain a respectable presence in the Legislature, the 2nd Congressional District seat and a spot on the Salt Lake County Commission. Those successes were followed in 1988 by the biggest political disappointment of his life, Ted Wilson's failed attempt to take the governor's office away from Norm Bangerter.

Applying everything he had learned about politics along with what some observers considered a disproportionate share of the party's resources, Horiuchi helped make Wilson the presumed front-runner. But then the wheels came off. Not only was Wilson's seemingly unstopable campaign derailed, so were those of several other leading Democrats who may or may not have lacked for attention.

The following year, Horiuchi decided not to seek a third term as party chairman. He was down but not out.

The son of a retired Salt Lake County deputy sheriff, Horiuchi grew up in the Cottonwood community and attended local public schools. Recalling his own peaceful childhood, Horiuchi, 41, laments the pressures and fears that grip children today.

"You know, when Harriet Nelson died a few days ago, I felt as if it was the end of an era. Society has really raised the stakes on kids today. It's our job to bring back some of the old-time values."

Though steeped in politics, Horiuchi said he never intended to run for office himself. He changed his mind in 1990, when it became apparent that no one else in the party was willing to challenge the popular incumbent commissioner, Tom Shimizu. Starting with a 40-point deficit in the polls, Horiuchi shocked everyone - including himself - with a "huge" upset win.

Given to hyperbole and showmanship, Horiuchi attracts more media attention than most other politicians. Images of him standing alongside a toilet bowl in a dry creek bed - to make a point about water conservation - or dressed like the robot in "Lost in Space" - to make a point about hazardous-waste sites - have helped make him as much a personality as a politician.

However, Horiuchi says he hopes voters judge him on his record rather than on his personality. Among his achievements, he points to the Magna and West Jordan community pools, Riverbend Golf Course, Hunter Library, generous law enforcement funding, the rebuilding of the Fire Department, programs to restore Mill Creek Canyon and preserve Dimple Dell and the downzoning of the

foothills. His critics point to his approval of a controversial foothills subdivision and expansion of a shopping center in Union, as well as a political style that clearly rubs them the wrong way.

According to Horiuchi, partisan politics seldom enter into his duties as a county commissioner. "There are no Democratic or Republican chuckholes," he likes to say. "There are no Democratic or Republican fires or snowstorms or street lights."

In his re-election announcement 10 months ago, he told a roomful of supporters, "While others may have loftier ambitions, my legacy burns brightest when your garbage is picked up, when that chuckhole gets filled, that street light comes on and that culvert is cleaned. That is what I am about."

*****

Additional Information

Election previews

View Comments

The Deseret News in the weeks preceding the general election Nov. 8 is publishing articles about candidates and their stands on issues in the

campaign. In coming days you'll see the following stories:

Wednesday: Dell Holbrook, Democratic candidate for Davis County Commission seat A

Thursday: 3rd Congressional District

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.