Salt Lake City's first female mayor, Deedee Corradini, announced this week she won't seek re-election in November.
For many political observers, this was a case of the mayor making an obvious decision: The chances that she could have actually won the race were slim.Still, if you know Corradini -- at least the public Corradini -- you know she doesn't shrink from challenges.
Have you ever seen that stare, the mouth tight, the eyes glaring?
But the mayor had played out her hand. She had little more to give, politically and personally.
In looking back, perhaps only Enid Greene could match the mayor in gaining and losing as much in public service as Corradini.
Corradini's reputation was tarnished -- perhaps forever she will be remembered for her soliciting and accepting $231,000 in gifts from wealthy Utahns.
Her personal life was turned upside down. She and attorney-husband Yan Ross divorced after the money scandal.
While I don't know this for sure, my guess is that she suffered serious financial problems, losing any savings she may have had.
Even her father passed away during her tenure, a man she clearly loved deeply and was close to.
Everyone knew she wanted to be mayor during the 2002 Winter Games. She loved the international stage the Olympics provides.
While sometimes Corradini's smile could be plastered on as she clearly tried to force an appearance she didn't feel, there's no doubt that when she accepted the Olympic flag for the Salt Lake Games at the close of the Nagano Winter Olympics a year ago, that ear-to-ear grin was real.
While I figured she couldn't withstand a successful re-election, my guess was she might run anyway, knowing if she lost she could retire to some promotional-type job with her good friend Frank Joklik's Salt Lake Organizing Committee.
(You may remember that Corradini rented Joklik's home for awhile after the Bonneville Pacific scandal/payback forced her from her "dream" home on the upper Avenues).
But even that was taken from her in recent weeks.
SLOC, even had Joklik managed to say in the organization, couldn't have afforded to bring on a high-profile politico whose public ethics had been so savaged in the press.
And with Joklik gone last Friday, any hope Corradini had that she could jump from City Hall to SLOC ended.
An irony of the mayor's career is that she courted and felt at home with the city's elite -- the rich, the powerful. A table was named after her at the New Yorker, an expensive private club she frequented with and without IOC members.
But for her tony tastes, her core support came from Central City and the city's poorer neighborhoods on the west side.
As she barely won re-election in 1995 (she actually finished second in the primary that year, an unheard of drubbing for an incumbent mayor), the election map of the city showed few east-side precincts going for the mayor, the west-side solidly in her camp.
Perhaps the city's working class families could identify with her better: a single mom with two kids who returned from a stink back East with only two suitcases of possessions to her name.
A woman who made it in a man's world, wearing those power-red suits and stiff short hair, who simply didn't take no for an answer.
And she did care for poorer Salt Lakers. To help their troubled teens she started Friday Night Basketball. She worked with neighborhood councils.
And she dreamed of cleaning up the Gateway District, removing dozens of railroad tracks and dirty train yards that for 100 years had physically and psychologically separated the city's east side from the west side.
But for all her accomplishments, things still weren't going well. As her private and political life fell apart, Corradini withdrew.
She was booed when introduced at a Jazz game -- the game where John Stockton set the NBA assist record and fans were screaming for joy until her name came over the P.A.
Several City Council members became constant critics of the mayor. The council even conducted its own investigation of Giftgate, a highly critical report.
The bad feelings and lack of trust showed itself clearly several months ago when Corradini appeared at a press conference with LDS Church leaders to announce that Main Street between South and North Temple streets would be closed so the church could build underground parking below and parks above the street -- and city council members hadn't even been informed of the plan. They learned of it not from the mayor but from news reporters seeking their responses.
The mayor may truly believe she knows what's best for the city, may be convinced some council members are whiny obstructionists. But such actions show an unhealthy city government.
So, Corradini leaves. A tough eight years for her. Many accomplishments -- with the Gateway Project perhaps being her signature for the next 100 years.
But she leaves with a checkered history, one I'm sure she would have changed in many ways if she'd had the 1990s to live over again.
Deseret News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com.