For all the money spent, the TV ads run, the pavement pounded by candidates and volunteers, the 1998 election didn't change much in Utah.
Republicans are still king, although there may be a few different courtiers. They will make the policy and call the shots in most county commissions and the Legislature.The congressional delegation is still all Republican - although our three GOP House members go back to a weakened Republican House and an unchanged Senate to face a clearly rejuvenated President Clinton and uppity minority congressional Democrats.
Rep. Merrill Cook ended up with a healthy victory - considering the district's history - over Democrat Lily Eskelsen.
Eskelsen was moving on Cook several weeks ago. But a spate of negative ads by both sides seemed to slow Eskelsen's campaign. While polls indicated a close race, in the end Cook held a 10 percentage point win - comparable to some healthy victories by former 2nd District Rep. Wayne Owens, Democrat, in the late 1980s.
Cook is the first 2nd District incumbent to win re-election this decade.
Rep. Jim Hansen coasted to victory in the 1st Congressional District over Democrat Steve Beierlein.
Rep. Chris Cannon didn't have a Democratic opponent in the 3rd District, winning big.
And as expected, Sen. Bob Bennett squashed his Democratic challenger, Scott Leckman.
Utah voters adopted Proposition 5, the constitutional amendment that will now require a two-thirds vote for passage of any citizen initiative that deals with hunting and fishing.
And Salt Lake County voters decided to change their form of government. In 2000 a "mayor" and nine council members will be elected to run the sprawling county government.
And struggling Democrats lost a seat on the Salt Lake County Commission.
While Democrat Karen Crompton led most of Tuesday evening, at the end she was nipped by incumbent GOP Commissioner Mary Callaghan. With Republican Mark Shurtleff also winning, the commission now is all Republican - the first time since the 1980s that Democrats don't have a say in running the largest county in the state.
But Republicans will have complete control for only two years. With the passage of the change-of-government initiative, the commissioners' terms end in 2001 when the new government takes office.
Voter turnout was a bit higher than expected as last-minute advertisements hit the airways and appeared in newspapers. Salt Lake County came in at 45 percent, partly because of active get-out-the-vote drives by Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats picked up only one seat in the 75-member Utah House, where Republicans will rule 54-21. Embattled House Speaker Mel Brown, R-Midvale, won what turned out for him a close race. Brown said early Wednesday morning that he will decide Wednesday or Thursday whether to run for speaker again or just drop back into the body.
But Democrats added two seats in the state Senate, a bit of surprise. Republicans will still be in the majority, 18-11.
Sens. Nathan Tanner, R-Ogden, and Dave Buhler, R-Salt Lake City, both fell to Democratic challengers. Buhler's loss was a bit of a surprise; the hard-working moderate raised and spent more money than any other Senate candidate this year.
GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt said Tuesday night that Republican governors did OK in the elections, although they dropped two state houses. And perhaps with a less-than-expected showing in U.S. House and Senate contests this year, the national party will look to the workaday governors for some answers when the Republican Governors Association meets in a couple of weeks.
Both Hansen and Cook said with the poor showing by Republicans in U.S. House races across the nation - early Wednesday it appears Democrats will actually make small gains in the House, the first time that's happened to a party holding the White House in a non-presidential year since 1934 - that something must happen.
Hansen said while he personally supports House Speaker Newt Gingrich there will be those who may want the speaker to step aside. Cook made headlines earlier this year when he predicted Gingrich wouldn't be speaker in 1999. "Don't do that to me again," Cook joked, when asked about Gingrich.
"We will have to come in (next year) with a real commitment to a Republican agenda - which we definitely didn't get this year. We have to have tax reform and tax cuts. We have to move, do something," said Cook.
Leavitt said on a state level he expects to work well with the GOP-controlled Legislature whether Brown, House budget chair Marty Stephens or some other Republican wins the speakership in a special Friday GOP House caucus election. "We will move forward as before," said Leavitt.
GOP state chairman Rob Bishop said Republicans held so many legislative seats that Tuesday's losses really shouldn't be seen as that. Earlier this year, Bishop said the GOP could lose up to 10 state House seats. Being almost even "is a victory for us in a non-presidential election year."
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said of his race, "We followed the same trend as was established nationally. Sixty days ago, all the polls told us this election would be a referendum on Clinton and it would be a smashing win for Republicans. But in the last 60 days, the Clinton factor disappeared, and nationwide every race seemed to focus on local issues and local candidates."
Bennett added, "I think it shows that voters are happier with Clinton than we Republicans would like them to be. But then also they are anxious to have a Republican Congress to keep an eye on him."
Even though Democrat Leckman lost his U.S. Senate race, he said he did think statements by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urging members to be politically active this year, and saying it is OK to be a Democrat, helped his party.
"I think it gave comfort to active Mormon Democrats. They were able to say, hey, I have a right to my beliefs," Leckman said.
Utah Democratic Party Chairwoman Meg Holbrook agreed, and said comments by Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the presidency of the Seventy that it is OK to be a Democrat especially helped.
"He let people look at candidates and at the issues," she said. "They wanted a little more balance. We talked about local issues that people cared about."
But Democrats targeted Salt Lake and Summit counties with aggressive voter-turnout campaigns and they still didn't make much headway - actually lost a Salt Lake County Commission seat. It was 12 years ago that Democrats gained 13 state House seats in a romp across Utah. They didn't come close to that in this off-year election.
Bennett said Republicans still have an edge with most Mormons. "Utah is more in tune with the national Republican Party than it is the national Democratic Party. If the Democrats are going to make inroads in Utah, it will be on local issues with candidates who disassociate themselves with the national party agenda."
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