Four years ago, insurance executive Mike Leavitt sat in his downtown election-night hotel suite and spoke about an eight-year plan as governor. A bit presumptuous, talking about a second term on the night he won his first?
Hardly.Tuesday, now-Gov. Mike Leavitt won the biggest victory of any governor in Utah's 100 years, getting 74.3 percent of the vote.
But he's not quite ready to talk about a third term. "I really, really like this job," Leavitt said after leaving a victory party at the Governor's Mansion on South Temple to attend another victory party in the Little America Hotel.
Leavitt's showing makes him not only the most popular governor, by votes, in the state's history, but the most popular politician ever in a major office. (See chart on Page A15.) Leavitt topped former Gov. Cal Rampton's 1972 victory of 69.5 percent to claim the gubernatorial slot. And if Leavitt runs and wins a third term, he'd tie that Rampton record, too; Rampton is the only person to serve three terms as Utah's chief executive.
"Four years ago I had enough work for a first and second term, yes," said Leavitt in an interview late Tuesday night. "There are still many things to do in the next four years. I will, at some time, have to make an assessment about (a third term). I can't think of another job I'd like more. But (a decision on 12 years in office) won't be made for awhile."
Leavitt is joined in another four years by his lieutenant governor, Olene Walker. Utahns also re-elected Democratic Attorney General Jan Graham and State Treasurer Ed Alter, a Republican. Auston Johnson, a Republican appointed state auditor a year ago, won that seat for himself.
Leavitt will, again, have a Republican Utah House and Senate. A few House districts changed from one party to the other, but in the end the makeup is the same as the past two years - 55 Republicans, 20 Demo-crats.
The Utah Senate lost one Democrat - making it now nine Democrats and 20 Republicans.
But Leavitt won't be working with the same numbers in the state's congressional delegation. While Republicans kept the 2nd Congressional District with Merrill Cook's handy win over Democrat Ross Anderson, 55 percent to 42 percent, Democratic Rep. Bill Orton is gone in the 3rd District. Newcomer Chris Cannon, with a surge of votes in Utah County, unseated the three-term Orton 52 percent to 47 percent.
Neither of Utah's two GOP senators, Orrin Hatch or Bob Bennett, faced election this year. Even in defeat, rumors of Orton running against Bennett in 1998 surfaced early Wednesday. Orton considered, but declined, running for the Senate against Hatch two years ago.
As expected, Bob Dole carried Utah in the presidential race. Final but unofficial numbers show Dole with 53 percent, President Clinton at 34 percent and Ross Perot 10 percent. But at least Clinton didn't finish third here, as he did in 1992.
For all the money, campaigning, effort and good and bad feelings, the 1996 election in Utah - except for Orton - really didn't change much. And that's probably because Utahns are, by and large, a pretty satisfied lot.
"People weren't mad," said Dan Jones, the Deseret News/KSL pollster who conducted an exit poll Tuesday for the TV station. "A lot of Republican voters came home, especially in the 2nd District, 3rd District and attorney general races." Republican candidates were greatly helped by 30 percent of Republicans voting straight party tickets, said Jones. That's a very high number in Utah, said Jones, where historically many voters pick and choose down the ballot, casting some votes for Republicans, some for Democrats.
The state's economy has been on a roll. Leavitt and the GOP-controlled Legislature gave tax cuts each of the past four years, all while state programs have grown nearly 10 percent a year.
Democrats tried but failed to convince voters that Leavitt and the Republican Legislature haven't planned well for transportation needs or protecting the environment. But those complaints fell mostly on deaf ears.
While some candidates in other races, especially Cook and Anderson in the 2nd Congressional District, still sniped at each other late Tuesday night, Leavitt and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Bradley had only nice things to say about each other.
"I'm sure of one thing," said Bradley, a former Salt Lake County commissioner. "It's nice to have it over. I've known all along that the likelihood of winning was slim. If the exit polls (shown on TV) had had me ahead, you would have had to call 911, I'd be down on the floor. But we ran a civil campaign, on both sides, and I congratulate Gov. Leavitt for being willing to meet me in debates and on the issues."
Bradley said while politics isn't his life, he loves it. Don't be surprised to see him again in another race, perhaps in the 1999 Salt Lake mayor's contest.
"I thank Jim Bradley for running," said Leavitt. "My ideas wouldn't have been as focused without him." But Leavitt was never worried. He raised money like the race was neck-and-neck, spending upwards of $700,000 in a campaign where the polls never showed Leavitt below 70 percent or Bradley above 15 percent. And back in July, Leavitt said he met with top aides and started planning a specific agenda for the first few years of a second term.
First, said Leavitt, will be managing the largest road construction and reconstruction projects in the state's history - the main challenge being rebuilding I-15 in Salt Lake County.
"We'll finish reforming health care. We fight that battle at least once a month to keep it on track," said Leavitt. Welfare reform must be completed.
And he'll continue his battle for more power flowing to the states. As he sat in his hotel suite four years ago, Leavitt said Utahns would solve their health insurance challenges. But the real fight was to wrest power away from the federal government and return it to the states.
But Leavitt's Conference of the States was derailed by an odd coalition of ultra-conservative Republicans and labor union Democrats, the first fearing changes to the U.S. Constitution, the second liking many federal programs.
In the glow of victory Tuesday, Leavitt wasn't giving up on that issue by any means. "Look where we are today. Four years ago few people were even talking about the federal/state relationship. Now it was a major issue in the presidential race in 1996 and an issue in many U.S. Senate and House races. There has been a major sea change, and we're still going to push this," he said.
Leavitt and his wife, Jackie, will now take a five-day vacation in the state to relax from the rigors of the campaign, aides said.
Voters across the state also approved six changes to the state's constitution, and Salt Lake County will impose a one-tenth of 1 percent additional sales tax to $13 million a year for art groups, the zoo and rec-rea-tion programs.
While there wasn't much of a change overall in the makeup of the Utah House and Senate, two arch-conservative Salt Lake County representatives are gone.
Rep. Dave Bresnahan, R-West Jordan, had a lot of bad press this fall. He was charged with a misdemeanor after firing his handgun into a canal in an effort to stop two men from fleeing from a hit-and-run injury automobile accident. The Utah Education Association also took after him for inflammatory statements Bresnahan made on his World Wide Web home page about teachers. Rep. Sue Lockman, R-Kearns, a guns-rights advocate, was also defeated in a close race.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Utah's biggest landslide
Gov. Mike Leavitt's 74.3% of the vote in his re-election bid is the largest percentage of votes any Utah candidate has received in a major statewide race.
YEAR OFFICE WINNER DEFEATED
74.3% 1996 Governor Mike Leavitt (R) Jim Bradley
73.6% 1980 Senate Jake Garn (R) Dan Berman
72.2% 1986 Senate Jake Garn (R) Craig Oliver
69.5% 1972 Governor Calvin Rampton (D) Nicholas Strike
68.8% 1994 Senate Orrin Hatch (R) Pat Shea
68.2% 1968 Governor Calvin Rampton (D) Carl Buehner
67.1% 1988 Senate Orrin Hatch (R) Brian Moss