Salt Lake City's election this year was nothing if not suspenseful. Three of the four races for City Council were close, and two of them went right down to the wire.
In District 5, former Salt Lake City Board of Education member Roger Thompson was trailing county Democratic Party executive board member Jackie Biskupski with all but one voting precinct reporting. But that last precinct put him over the top - with only 43 votes to spare."I hope it holds up," Thompson said with a laugh Tuesday night. Results were complete but unofficial.
In District 3, Greater Avenues Community Council Chairman Tom Rogan beat historical preservation advocate Polly Hart by a mere 59 votes. Percentages in both races: 49 percent for the loser to 51 percent for the winner. Neither margin was quite close enough for the losers to get an automatic recount, but Hart said she's thinking about asking for one anyway - at her expense.
In District 1, planning commissioner Carlton Christensen beat out former two-time Councilman Ronald Whitehead, and in District 7, incumbent Keith Christensen easily defeated Karen Nielsen.
The Thompson-Biskupski race was the most contentious. Campaign workers and supporters - primarily on the Biskupski side - continually characterized the race as a clear choice between east-side and west-side values, LDS and non-LDS, liberal and moderate. In an unusual move, the county Democratic Party endorsed Biskupski, even though Thompson also belongs to the party.
The Democrats also supported Rogan, albeit informally. Nominally, at least, all Salt Lake City Council races are nonpartisan.
Thompson said his first priority would be to "heal the rifts that were caused by the campaign."
"There was a lot of political experience behind Jackie and that made a lot of difference," he said. "They were very professional and ran a hard fight and knew what they were doing."
Hart spent more than $20,000 in her race, more than any other candidate. She said she was disappointed by losing such a squeaker, but had no regrets.
"I can now die knowing that I really tried to make a difference," she said.
Carlton Christensen basically had to overcome two incumbents to win his spot: Lee Martinez, who was appointed last April but lost in the October primary, and Whitehead. Christensen attributed his victory to a hard-working, grass-roots campaign as well as voters' thirst for new blood.
"I think people were looking for a new perspective," he said.
Christensen's hardest-working supporter: his mother, who even at age 75 and with a recently replaced hip spent hours pounding the pavement talking up her son. Keith Christensen said he has more he wants to do ("you can't do it all in four years"), specifically with regard to planning, but he may have only two years to do it - he is considering running for mayor in 1999, though he has not yet made a final decision.
Just over 18 percent of the city's 59,706 registered voters turned out to the polls.