Once again two Democrats face off in the Salt Lake City mayoral finals. The question is, which two Democrats?
Final but unofficial results of Tuesday's close primary election has Rocky Anderson clearly in front, but only 28 votes separate second-place Stuart Reid from Dave Jones.Jones will ask for a recount. And while little may change when the computers of the Salt Lake County clerk -- who handled the election for the city -- churn through the ballots already turned in, Deputy Salt Lake County Clerk Nick Floros said Wednesday morning there are still about 260 absentee ballots that could trickle in through the mail over the next several days. Those ballots must be postmarked by midnight Monday and could well spell the future for Reid and Jones.
Absentee ballots already in the clerk's hands were counted Tuesday. And Jones did well, capturing 170 absentee votes. Among the top-tier contenders Reid trailed in the absentee count with 100.
"We hold out optimism," Jones said Wednesday. "My (campaign) staff is reporting to work today. We hate being in limbo; people will be on pins and needles for a couple of days, but we're going forward. If the pattern of absentee voting holds up, we could win this thing."
Jones recalled the 1991 Salt Lake mayoral race when he finished third by just 89 votes. A recount and late-arriving absentee ballots pushed him back further by 34 votes. "If that happened again, but in my favor, we win," Jones said.
Deputy City Recorder Doc Kivett said a "preliminary" count of absentee ballots will be made Thursday. But the final vote count will be adopted next Tuesday night by the City Council, sitting as the Board of Canvassers.
If Tuesday's placements hold up at the official ballot canvass held Oct. 12 in City Hall, an Anderson-Reid final will point out the differences between two men who call themselves Democrats but whose similarities end there.
During the campaign leading up to Nov. 2 final election, voters will see a sharp contrast between attorney Anderson, who considers himself an outsider to the current city administration, and insider Reid, the city's community and economic development director.
They emerged Tuesday as the winners in a close primary that eliminated nine other mayoral candidates. Anderson and Stuart were among other winners in cities and towns in primaries across the state who advanced to the final election.
Anderson was out front the entire night, while the horse race for second place was between Reid, Democratic House Leader Jones and former County Commissioner Jim Bradley, also a Democrat.
In the end, Reid edged out Jones out of more than 26,300 cast. Bradley finished third Tuesday night and Steve Harmsen, the only Republican in the race, fourth.
It was Jones' second run for Salt Lake mayor. And while running second most of the night, it was, ironically, Jones' own Avenues area -- which he has represented in the Utah House for a decade -- that let him down. He fell behind Reid only when that area was counted late Tuesday night.
"It was a Jim McMahon finish," said Roger Black, Salt Lake's director of management services and a Reid supporter, comparing the finish to the former BYU quarterback's game-winning hail Mary pass in the 1980 Holiday Bowl.
Notwithstanding his support on Jones' home turf, Reid attributed his narrow lead to strong support on the city's west side, where he lives and where he had assiduously cultivated voters.
That was the same strategy Mayor Deedee Corradini used in her two successful mayoral elections.
Assuming Reid and Jones don't change places after the recount, voters will choose between two distinct personalities and philosophies in Anderson and Reid. While the crowded 11-man primary field may have muddied the candidates' messages, that won't be the case in the finals.
"There are clear choices now," Reid said Tuesday night as supporters, many of them Corradini administration officials, cheered his narrow victory.
Anderson has stood by traditional Democratic principles for years, favoring worker and human rights. He's pro-choice, and anti-death penalty. While those issues have little to do with running a city, Reid may highlight them in the general election campaign.
Reid describes himself as a conservative Democrat whose views often dovetail with Republicans. He's pro-development, pro-light rail and wants the city's downtown to grow.
Anderson has also been a critic of Police Chief Ruben Ortega and many current city policies. Reid, as a member of Corradini's cabinet, says he would keep Ortega (if the chief would stay). He supports most of the current city projects -- especially the Gateway redevelopment -- saying he voted for them when he was on the council or helped formulate them after Corradini made him head of city economic development.
"This election is about the direction the city has been going in and the direction the city should continue to go in," Reid said.
The candidate, in fact, made a special point of thanking Corradini, asking for the crowd's attention at his headquarters as he gave her the thumbs up. Corradini, somewhat emotionally, echoed the gesture.
As for Anderson, he said he hoped his first-place finish was "because people were listening to the debates. And they saw what the candidates accomplished in the past, but also what their views are to what must come" in the future.
Reid will likely publicly disagree, but Anderson said Tuesday night that he is not known as a partisan politician, not liberal or conservative, but a man who tries to find the best solutions he can to the many problems facing the city. "I start (the final month-long campaign) with a broad base," Anderson said. "I will take advantage of every opportunity to improve this community and its quality of life."
While Anderson was the clear winner in the primary, he does have one large hurdle: He alone among the top-tier candidates has pledged to stay within the voluntary campaign spending limit of $375,000.
After his primary spending, Anderson says he will have only $125,000 to $150,000 under the limit left to spend over the next month. "I want to be on TV like the other guys," he said. "It will be tough."
But he added that he believes strongly in campaign finance reform and will stick with his promise. He hopes "my hundreds of volunteer supporters" will offset Reid's spending abilities.
The big question, the one that likely decides who becomes mayor, is who the supporters of the primary election losers will vote for in the general election. Republican Steve Harmsen, for example, siphoned off thousands of conservative voters who will likely go to Reid. But where supporters for Jones and Bradley will go is much more complicated.
Bradley said he believes Anderson's support was "very strident and early" and that Anderson has plateaued. He made that statement, however, when it appeared Jones, not Reid, would emerge from the primary.
One indicator of the future might be drawn from Jones campaign manager Jenny Wilson, who said the undecided vote in the primary turned out to be mostly conservative. That would favor Reid. On the other hand, Anderson, Jones and Bradley all had a similar let's-change-the-way-the-city-is-doing-business attitude, which may result in all those voters combining in Anderson's camp.
Finally, a bitter Anderson-Reid final election could harm Utah's minority Democratic Party -- which in the 1990s has seen Mormon/anti-Mormon battles within its ranks. At one time, Reid was a leader in small movement to give Mormon moderate Democrats more say in the party, whose base is clearly located in the city and along the Wasatch Front.
Salt Lake City saw a voter turnout of around 26 percent Tuesday night, which is not bad for a mayoral primary that also saw three City Council seats up for election.
In District 2, Van Blair Turner was the leading vote-getter by a wide margin, with Hispanic activist Robert "Archie" Archuleta taking the second spot. District 4 is fielding two women with Nancy Saxton and Linda LePreau emerging from the primary. And in District 6, former state senator and erst-while mayoral candidate David Buhler swamped his opponents, with Mark Garfield taking the No. 2 spot.
Up and down the state turnout varied as citizens picked the officials who will look to the final elections for more help from their friends and neighbors:
-- In Provo, the primary races produced no upsets. Two-term incumbent and council chairman Mark Hathaway was easily the top vote-getter among five candidates competing for his City-Wide III seat and will face former newspaper editor and civic activist Melanie McCoard in November's general election.
One of the casualties of that race was Richard Mack, the former Provo police deputy who lost in the race for Utah County sheriff last year. Mack, who had previously conceded he was "a longshot" to dethrone Hathaway, said he nevertheless expected to advance beyond the primary.
Utah County Republican Party chairman Stan Lockhart and Seven Peaks developer Brent McQuarrie both automatically advanced to the general election because they are the only two candidates pursuing the City-Wide II seat in Provo. Ditto for incumbent David Rail and Barbara Sandstrom in the city's northwest district.
-- West Jordan's primary balloting underscores the question of whether the Nov. 2 municipal election will shift the balance of power on the strife-riddled City Council or maintain the status quo.
Three of the candidates who remain in the running for four council seats are perceived as being strong backers of the present administration. They are opposed by three candidates who are perceived as being either prone to question the status quo or independent, unknown quantities.
-- In South Jordan, two out of six open-space advocates survived the primary.
Janalee Tobias and Drew Chamberlain, co-founders of the grass-roots group Save Open Space, were among the top eight vote-getters to move to the November general election.
Yet the majority of the voters Tuesday favored incumbents Richard Warne and Eugene Findlay and other candidates whose political platform is economic development.
-- In Cedar City, where there has not been a woman on the City Council since 1977, Georgia Beth Thomson, an administrator at Southern Utah University, was the top vote-getter among 10 candidates. Two other women candidates, V.J. Hedges and Holly McKnight, lost.
-- Ogden, where the state's only other four-year mayoral race is taking place, had self-employed property manager Matthew Godfrey and former Ogden City Manager Robert Hunter going away with 1,847 and 1,723 votes respectively.
In an unusual turn of events, a City Council seat likely will go uncontested because incumbent Rick Mayer, who formerly represented Municipal Ward Four, has announced plans to withdraw.
Mayer finished second in the at-large race and well behind political newcomer Mary Hall, but he knocked former legislator Robert L. Harris out of the running.