Conservative Utahns came home Tuesday and voted Republican.
Boy, did they vote Republican.Depending on which Democratic candidate or leader was speaking, it was a "stampede," a "slaughter," an "incredible wave."
Republicans just called it justice for what they believe are years of Democratic mismanagement, liberalism and big-government solutions that don't work.
Gone is Democratic Rep. Karen Shepherd, a defeat predicted but a surprise in its size - 10 percentage points. Republican Enid Greene Waldholtz goes to Washington to join the first Republican-controlled House in 40 years - and pledges to lead a conservative wave that will change the federal government.
Ironically, an idealistic Shepherd believed her huge Democratic freshman class in 1992 would reform Congress. It didn't - and Shepherd paid the price.
Democratic Rep. Bill Orton held on to his seat in the 3rd District. But Republican Dixie Thompson didn't run a very good race and didn't have much money.
Sen. Orrin Hatch won big over Democrat Pat Shea and will become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's the first time Republicans have held a Senate majority since 1986.
GOP Rep. Jim Hansen also won big over Democrat Bobbie Coray and maybe will receive chairmanship of a full committee - or at the very least a subcommittee chairmanship.
The Salt Lake County Commission returns to Republican control with the defeat of Democratic Commission Chairman Jim Bradley by GOP newcomer Mary Callaghan.
Callaghan will be the first woman commissioner in county history.
Democratic Commissioner Randy Horiuchi kept his seat in a squeaker against Republican Gene Whitmore, but considering Horiuchi outspent Whitmore 10-to-1, it's almost a moral defeat for Horiuchi.
The Republican tide swept down the ticket, wiping out Democrats Salt Lake County Attorney Dave Yocom and Treasurer Gary Pratt. Only Democratic County Clerk Sherry Swensen survived.
In Davis County, Commissioner Dell Holbrook - the first Democrat elected to the Davis County Commission in years when he won an upset in 1990 - was also swept aside Tuesday.
Of 29 counties, Democrats control just one county commission in the heavily Democratic Carbon County.
Democrats lost six seats in the Utah House, dropping them below one-third of the 75-member body. They lost one state Senate seat but denied Republicans a two-thirds majority by just one vote.
They held a key Taylorsville seat of a retiring Democrat and barely held on to incumbent seats in West Valley City, Murray/Central City and Tooele County. Democrats lost an Ogden seat held by retiring Sen. Winn Richards.
Amazingly enough, no incumbent Republican legislators lost Tuesday.
"We were hit by a political Republican freight train," said Horiuchi. "It got Jim (Bradley); it almost got me. It was awesome and very depressing. We used to vote in this state, this county, for the candidate, not the party. But that didn't happen this time."
The real story is that Utahns, sick of big government, unhappy with President Clinton's policies - especially those involving taxes and public lands - turned on Democrats.
Cook is finished
Even though he wasn't a Democratic incumbent, voters treated Cook like one. He finished a distant third in the 2nd District race, getting only 18 percent of the vote. That's much worse than his second-place finish in the 1992 governor's race, an even lower vote percentage than his 1988 governor's race.
During the campaign, Cook said he wouldn't run for political office if he lost. But Tuesday night a dejected and oft-times angry Cook told his independent supporters to give up on him and their party, which he started in 1989.
He was especially disappointed over the 2-to-1 defeat of Initiative A, his term limits/runoff election provision that hundreds of volunteers worked to get on the ballot.
"The Independent Party is a hard sell in Utah," said Cook. "People agree with it, but they won't vote for it. The power of the establishment is just too great. The Independent (Party) movement in Utah is over. Maybe it can continue with someone else leading it, but I can't do it anymore. I am saying to those in the Independent Party, now is the time to go back to the Republican and Democratic parties. It's over."
While encouraging his followers to join the traditional two-party system, Cook said he won't go back to the Republican Party, which he left in 1988 to challenge former GOP Gov. Norm Bangerter.
"I wouldn't go back to the Republicans for $10 million," said Cook.
"The Republican (Party) leaders are a bunch of arrogant elitists. Leaders like Joe Waldholtz (Enid's husband and former party executive director) would be better off running the Nazi Party," he said.
Cook was especially upset at last-minute Waldholtz campaign ads saying Cook was pro-abortion. Cook said he and his family took that "lie" personally.
With the victory of Waldholtz Tuesday, the last three Cook elections have ended in Republican victories. In the 1988 and 1992 governor's races and the 1994 2nd District race, Cook pulled the eventual GOP winner below 50 percent.
But he couldn't win. However, for never being elected to office, Cook leaves the political scene as undoubtedly the most influential, non-incumbent politician in Utah of the past decade.
With the defeat of Initiative A's runoff-election provision, there will be no runoff Dec. 6 in the 2nd District, even though Waldholtz didn't get more than 50 percent of the vote. Lt. Gov. Olene Walker, poised to ask the Utah Supreme Court to rule runoffs illegal, won't have to use her lawyers after all.
Initiative A went down in defeat along with Proposition 3, a proposed amendment to the Utah Con-stitution that would clearly allow non-sectarian teaching of religion in public schools. It appears many Utahns were worried about any change to the Constitution regarding separation of church and state.
Two other constitutional amendments did pass, one on victims' rights and another on changes in how school trust-land monies can be spent.
Waldholtz and Shepherd
Shepherd knew she was in trouble going into the election. Wald-holtz was confident. But neither predicted the margin of Waldholtz's victory.
Dan Jones, who polls for the Deseret News and KSL-TV, conducted exit polls for KSL. He said there was a big conservative swing over the weekend.
"The voters were very anti-Clinton," he said. "The Republicans got their vote out - Orrin Hatch helped with that - and the Democrats didn't. Democratic turnout was very low. In the 2nd District, people were very unhappy with the negative ads."
Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said 58 percent of registered voters in the county voted, a slightly lower turnout than in other recent mid-term elections. The 2nd District makes up the eastern half of the county.
Shepherd lost her base, said Jones. Waldholtz won the male vote, 57-28 percent, bigger than expected. Shepherd lost the women's vote, critical for her, 35-50 percent.
The big figure, Jones said, belonged to Waldholtz, who carried the Mormon vote, getting 67 percent of voters who said they were active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"As a girl I was a Los Angeles Dodgers fan," recalled Shepherd. "That's because I've always been for the underdog." Her loss means she and Democrats in Utah "are Dodger fans again - underdogs."
"But we won't give up. I don't regret a single thing, a single vote; I made these past two wonderful years. We're right all along," she said.
She called her congressional and campaign staffs to the podium at the Democrats' gathering at the downtown Holiday Inn in Salt Lake City. She hugged them and praised their work. Many of her supporters cried.
Shepherd, who held a state Senate seat before winning the 1992 2nd District race, said she wouldn't close any doors on a future run for office. "But I have no thoughts about that now. I'm going to work hard" until her term is over in January, "then fill the bird feeder at my (Avenues) home and watch them eat for awhile."
Her regret, she said, is for the volunteers and those who gave her money "for my grassroots campaign."
"Unfortunately, we (in the 2nd District) proved once again that more often big money wins - it did in this case."
Said Waldholtz, "We won because we were right on the issues and ran a positive campaign."
She spent more than $1.5 million of her own money on the race, pouring cash into last-minute TV and radio ads.
Waldholtz said campaigns are spending too much money, especially too much special-interest money from political action committees. Waldholtz wouldn't say she'd work for voluntary limits on candidates' spending their own money on congressional races. "If we stop the funneling of (special interest) money to incumbents and limit campaign spending, the (personal candidate) money will take care of itself."
Waldholtz said with the Republican flood into the U.S. House majority, "You will really see some changes now - changes in the way things are done, changes in the committee structure. It's a new day."
Shepherd warned that Waldholtz shouldn't get too comfortable. "The history of this district is that on most issues (constituents) fall out 50-50 - about half the people feel unrepresented no matter what the incumbent does. It's a swing district, hard to win, hard to hold."
Legislature
Democratic incumbents got whipped in six Utah House races, dropping from 26 to 20 seats in the 75-member body and falling well below a one-third minority.
But they fared better in the 29-member state Senate, which saw 15 seats up for grabs. Democrats lost one seat, so the 18-11 GOP majority in the 1994 Legislature shifts to 19-10. That still denies Republicans a two-thirds majority.
The 1994 legislative elections aren't a low-point for House and Senate Democrats, however. In 1983 there were only five Democratic state senators, not even enough for them to sit on all the budget subcommittees. In 1985, Democrats dropped to just 14 members in the 75-member House.
But that's little solace for Utah Democratic Party Chairman Dave Jones. "We can't be an effective minority with Republicans above a two-thirds majority (in the House). The Republicans control the rules, can stop debate, can stop us from even talking about a subject."
Future for Democrats?
"I don't know what more we could have done," said Dave Jones, who is also a state House member from the Avenues section of Salt Lake City and won re-election Tuesday. "We spent $130,000 on a coordinated turn-out-the-vote effort. We made 40,000 phone calls this week. We had voter contact with 90,000 Democrats in Salt Lake County alone."
It seems every time Democrats crawl out of their minority role in Utah, such as in 1986 when they won the 2nd District and doubled their numbers in the Utah House and in 1990 when Orton won an upset victory, they get slapped down again.
Dave Jones and Orton, now the titular head of Utah Democrats because he's the top officeholder, said Republicans will now have to govern nationally - and they better produce. That's no problem at the state level; Republicans have run Utah politics for 20 years in the Legislature and for a decade in the governor's office.
"Sensible, reasonable leadership, that's what we've given Utah, and I hope that's what we'll give the nation," said Senate President Lane Beattie, R-West Bountiful. "This means a balanced budget amendment passed first thing (in January in Congress)? I hope (national Republicans) keep their promises.
"Republican control of Congress should, I hope, mean a diminished federal role - back to states' rights and our Gov. (Mike) Leavitt will be leading the way," said Beattie.
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Additional Information
Shepherd's loss ends 8-year Demo hold
Karen Shepherd's loss Tuesday in the 2nd Congressional District ended an eight-year Democratic hold on that seat in Congress. Only three times in the district's history has one party had a longer tenure.
8 years 1986-94 D Wayne Owens, Karen Shepherd
10 years 1976-86 R Dan Marriott, David Monson
4 years 1972-76 D Wayne Owens, Allen Howe
6 years 1966-72 R Sherman P. Lloyd
2 years 1964-66 D David S. King
2 years 1962-64 R Sherman P. Lloyd
4 years 1958-62 D David S. King
6 years 1952-58 R William A. Dawson
4 years 1948-52 D Reva B. Bosone
2 years 1946-48 R William A. Dawson
14 years 1932-46 D J. Will Robinson
12 years 1920-32 R E.O. Leatherwood, F.C. Loofbourow
6 years 1914-20 D James H. Mays
2 years 1912-14 R Jacob Johnson
Prior to 1912, Utah had only one congressional district.