The contest pits the grandmother vs. the dairy farmer over who will represent Utah's most affluent resort community in the state Legislature during the next two years.
Democrat Ruth Wagner, a 64-year-old part-time attorney, lives on the urban side of Summit County, peopled by an upscale Park City demographic that is the most educated in the state.The District 53 incumbent, 44-year-old David Ure, a Republican, runs cows on his ranch 20 miles away in rural Kamas.
Ure is a lifelong inhabitant of the district, which includes Morgan and southern Rich counties; Wagner arrived in the Snyderville Basin from the East Coast a decade ago.
Their styles seem as different as their backgrounds: Ure, the mild-mannered diplomat; Wagner the assertive boat-rocker. Both say they know and like one another, though neither can resist a political-year shot at the opponent.
"David Ure is a fine gentleman," said Wagner. "But I don't think he's sufficiently educated in the law to understand how the laws he creates affect people."
To which Ure laughs, "One thing we don't need is another dang attorney in there helping us write laws."
Though Summit County's construction boom in the 1990s has made it one of the fastest-growing counties in America and has made growth control the local-government issue of the day here, both candidates shy away from suggesting the state should have a strong role in managing development.
"It's a local issue," said Wagner, agreeing with Ure's position.
How, then, might a state solon from a mountain community affect the lives of his or her alpine constituents?
"They have dropped the ball on education," said Wagner, who criticizes Utah's GOP-dominated Legislature as a good-old-boys club that is also insensitive on everything from crime to pollution control.
"Utah has become a laughingstock as far as the way the Legislature operates . . . they're operating it like they were still in the 1800s and they were baron kings," said Wagner, who is particularly incensed at the publicity gleaned from an illegal and secret legislative caucus earlier this year in which lawmakers talked strategy on outlawing gay clubs at high schools.
"That is not a viable way of conducting public business," said Wagner, who adds that legislators ought to be more "forward-looking."
"It's a different Utah than it was 20 years ago, and the governor has done a great job of inducing industry to move to the state, but they haven't shown the wherewithal to take care of it."
How might she look to the future?
"Take care of the environment, watch air pollution . . . make the appropriations for children like books, laboratories, computer labs and don't forget the arts if you want well-rounded people . . . and crime - we let our DUIs off so easily. The one-year sentence on vehicular homicide I would extend to much more than one more."
Ure defends his record as a down-home representative who fields calls day and night from constituents and sees a representative's role largely as a liaison between government and public.
"I feel like I can help solve people's problems when they call, and they're starting to really call . . . I'm getting two or three a day from constituents who feel like they're being beat up by the bureaucracy, and a good share of the time they're right."
When he was interviewed the other day, Ure said he'd just gotten off the phone with a woman whose husband was seriously ill and had just lost his insurance because of an arcane rule written by government workers.
"People just really don't know where to start when figuring out how to tackle a problem with government."
Deflecting criticism about local schools, Ure noted last year's state education appropriation marked the biggest increase on record.
"There will never be enough money for education in the state of Utah, according to some people . . . the fact is we have to balance that with social programs, transportation programs and other things."
He said that while crime is not an enormous issue yet in Summit County and environs, he is writing what he said is a much-needed bill that would increase penalties for traffic violations when alcohol is found in a vehicle with a minor.
And though Wagner believes she can win if she turns out the vote on her side of the county, Ure said sympathies for his re-election are districtwide.
"I feel like I have a greater rapport with the area," he said.
SENATE DISTRICT 25
Representing the Coalville and Kamas areas of Summit County, incumbent Lyle W. Hillyard, R-Logan, is unopposed.
Hillyard, 56, was assistant majority whip during the Senate's 1995-96 term. The attorney is a past president of the Cache Chamber of Commerce. He was elected to the House in 1980 and to the Senate in 1984. Four years ago he won re-election with 69 percent of the vote.
The district comprises Kamas, Francis, Marion, Oakley, Coalville, Echo and Henefer in Summit County; Logan, except for the area generally south of the Logan River; North Logan, Hyde Park, Smithfield, Richmond, Mendon and Lewiston areas of Cache County; and all of Rich County.
The Park City and Wanship-Peoa areas of Summit County are represented in the State Senate by Alarik Myrin, R-Altamont, Duchesne County. He is halfway through his four-year term.