The Utah County Commission has changed faces but not parties.
According to final but unofficial vote tallies from Tuesday's general election, Republican commission candidates Jerry Grover and David Gardner won their respective races and will begin serving four-year terms on the commission in January.Grover defeated Democrat Tom Anderson by a 72-28 percentile margin and will replace Malcolm Beck, who has served in Commission Seat A for eight years. In the Commission Seat B race, Gardner bested Independent candidate Jim Larsen even more handily, by an almost 4-to-1 margin.
"It's too bad it wasn't a presidential (election) year," joked Grover, alluding to the anti-Democrat sentiment that swept much of the nation. "I'm not really sure what to attribute my popularity to, but I tried to run on the issues. Plus there's no doubt in this country that it helps to be in the majority party."
Grover, 31, is a senior environmental engineer at Geneva Steel. Like Gardner, Grover has never held public office before. In fact, between the two of them, only Grover had previously run for office.
"Obviously I'm glad I won," Grover said. "A lot of people put in a lot of legwork, and that's the reason I won. I'm almost as happy for them as I am for myself. Our campaign tried to get a lot of people registered to vote, and I think a lot of people who wouldn't have normally voted did this year. That's the way elections are supposed to work."
Gardner, 39, is the treatment coordinator for adult psychiatry at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. He also practices family and marriage counseling in Spring-ville.
"It's incredible," said Gardner, who will replace first-time Commissioner Richard Johnson. "We're just extremely excited about this win. My campaign did a tremendous job at getting people educated and involved at the grass-roots level. I think people sensed in me that I can represent the people of this county."
Commissioners Beck and Johnson, who ran as write-in candidates, did not prove to be factors in the races. Beck drew less than 500 votes, while Johnson only got a few more than 300 - neither one of them gaining a significant percentage. The races will likely end the political careers of both men.
Grover and Gardner defeated the two commissioners in the June 28 primary, but Beck and Johnson decided to enter the races again as write-ins last week in a last-ditch attempt to preserve the look, as well as the amount of experience on the current commission.
Instead, Gardner and Grover will join fellow Republican Gary Herbert, whom Grover opposed as an Independent candidate two years ago, on the County Commission.
Candidates running for the commission posts promised to bring change to county government.
"It was a good, hard-fought and cleanly fought race," Gardner said. "Now I'm just looking forward to making a smooth transition from the current county administration to the new one."
Anderson will continue serving his first four-year term as a member of the Alpine City Council. If he had been elected, Anderson would have had to leave that post a year early and the remaining council members would have had to name his successor.
Neither Larsen, who manages Larsen Auto Inc. in Provo, nor Anderson could be reached for comment.