Enid Greene Waldholtz was giving her victory speech to supporters at Republican head-quarters early Wednesday when Neal Gunnarson interrupted her from the corner of the room.
"I did it!" he screamed.Gunnarson was reacting to the final vote tally making him Salt Lake County's first district attorney.
The outcome was one of the biggest surprises in the Salt Lake County races. The Republican upset two-term County Attorney David Yocom by 6,723 votes in final but unofficial results.
Gunnarson received 51.5 percent of the votes to Yocom's 48.5 percent.
But while Gunnarson was celebrating, Yocom - the man who fought to create the new district attorney position - was shaking his head.
"I'm sick to think I'm not going to be the district attorney I dreamed of being. There's a lot to be done," he said.
"We're getting swept out because of the Republican swing and not because we haven't done a good job."
Gunnarson downplayed the tide of Republican voting, saying the issue voters addressed was crime. "I think they want a new voice in there," he said.
"My message has been I want to do something about gangs and crime."
Gunnarson will inherit the 43 prosecutors currently led by Yocom. But Gunnarson promised one difference: He plans to bring back one of Yocom's former chief deputies, Bud Ellett, to a supervisory position.
Ellett moved to the office's civil division earlier this year after a publicized long-term dispute with Yocom. "He never should have been treated the way he was," Gun-narson said.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard easily surpassed his Democratic opponent, Pete Kutulas, to win a second term. Kennard garnered nearly 65 percent of the votes to Kutulas' 35 percent.
"I've done what I said I would do. The public knew that," Kennard said.
Kennard said this year's election was very similar to his first campaign four years ago. In 1990, Kennard surprised nearly everyone when he upset three-term incumbent Pete Hayward, now deceased.
Many of the same Hayward supporters lined up to support Kutulas during this race.
"Same people doing the same thing," Kennard said. "It was a rehash of four years ago, only it was a little more vicious."
Kutulas, who recently completed an intense 13-week course at the police academy because his police certification had lapsed, said he was disappointed but had no regrets.
"It was a long shot, and I was always aware of that," Kutulas said. "But as tough as it was, I've never felt better in my life."
In the county's other races, Republicans took all three open spots, ousted two incumbents and retained an office they already held.
The only Democrats to survive the GOP sweep were Commissioner Randy Horiuchi and County Clerk Sherrie Swensen. With 50 percent of the vote, she managed to stave off challenges from Orrin Hatch campaign worker Keith "Chum" Prows, and Hatch's sister, Frances Hatch Merrill, who ran on the Independent Party ticket.
Republican Auditor Craig Sorensen won a fifth term, easily defeating Democrat Kevin Whatcott and an unaffiliated candidate, Don Lee Gertsch.
In an unusually high-profile recorder's race, Republican Nancy Workman was widely criticized for a campaign that focused on "secret liens" but won her contest against Democrat Jan Johnson by a 15-point margin.
In the wake of near-tax revolts caused by a universally disliked reappraisal system, the assessor's race was also closely watched this year, especially after the incumbent Republican, Robert Yates, dropped out. Another Republican, Lee Gardner, will succeed him. Gardner, a state Tax Commission valuation appraiser, defeated his Democratic co-worker, David Swan.
A county treasurer's administrator, Johnson also lost her boss, Democratic Treasurer Gary Pratt, who was appointed to the post upon the death of Art Monson in 1993. Republican Larry Richardson, who is currently serving as chief deputy state treasurer, garnered 53 percent of the vote to Pratt's 47 percent.
Deputy County Attorney Allan Moll, widely recognized from his years as a television news anchorman, failed to win the newly-divided county attorney's office. Doug Short, who has been active in Sandy politics, won the race with about 25,000 votes to spare.
In the surveyor's race, Democratic incumbent M. Carl Larsen lost his bid for a fourth term to Republican Vaughn E. Butler.