Utah Senate Minority Leader Scott Howell is the latest state senator to retire this year, picking instead of re-election a major battle in challenging U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Howell's retirement from the state Senate continues what may be considered, if not a brain drain, then certainly an experience drain on the 29-member body.Monday, a spokesman for Howell, Charlie Luke, said Howell will formally announce Tuesday his retirement from the Legislature and his candidacy against Hatch, a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Senate.

The Utah Senate could easily lose a quarter of its members in the 2000 elections, including some of its top leaders.

This past week Senate President Lane Beattie announced he won't run again.

Longtime Democrat Jim McConkie sent out a press release last week saying he was running for Howell's District 8 seat, catching Howell off guard. Howell said last week he was considering other options to running for re-election.

State senators serve four-year terms. And this year 14

seats in the 29-member body are up for election.

So far, six senators have talked of retirement. In addition, Sen. Lorin Jones, R-Veyo, could be defeated by fellow Republican Rep. Bill Hickman of St. George for the GOP nomination in Senate District 29.

If that happens, at least seven current senators would be gone come 2001 -- a 24 percent turnover.

And this provides the Utah Democratic Party with the best chance for a return to political balance, said party director Todd Taylor. This is "undoubtedly" the best scenario the party has seen in a while, he said.

Considering the nine new senators coming into the body after the 1998 election, at least 55 percent of the Senate would be new within a two-year span. Of course, if incumbents other than Jones are defeated in November, then the turnover will be even higher.

Here's how the races in the Senate line up at present:

Beattie, R-West Bountiful, is leaving after 12 years. Several people could file by the March 17 deadline. Former car dealer Dan Eastman, a member of the Utah Transportation Commission, has already filed for the seat.

McConkie will run in Howell's district, which runs from the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon down toward State Street. McConkie ran for attorney general in 1980. He was in the 1996 2nd Congressional District race but dropped out after then-congressional candidate (now Salt Lake Mayor) Rocky Anderson declined to make way for him within the Democratic Party.

Sen. Mont Evans, R-Riverton, said the last day of the 2000 session that he's 95 percent sure he won't run this year. Former South Jordan City Manager Dave Millheim had already announced he would run against Evans for the Republican Party's nomination.

Hickman, a banker, announced some time ago he would challenge Jones in the St. George/Cedar City district. Hickman may have hoped Jones, a rancher, would get out of the GOP race, but Jones says he'll meet Hickman in the state GOP convention and primary.

Sen. Robert Montgomery, R-North Ogden, a retired surgeon, is leaving. Rep. Dave Gladwell, R-Ogden, has already said he's running there and may be joined by other Republicans.

Sen. Robert Muhlestein, R-Springville, won an upset victory four years ago over a longtime Democrat holding the seat. But the young businessman, 34, decided not to run again after longtime Rep. Bill Wright, R-Elberta, announced he was running for Muhlestein's seat this year.

Sen. Howard Nielson, R-Provo, a former U.S. congressman and speaker of the Utah House, is retiring after one term.

Democrats are just four seats away from winning control of the Senate, where they haven't been a majority since 1978.

But it's a tough four seats to get in Republican Utah, especially if Democrats open up Howell's seat in what normally would be considered a GOP area. Howell is a proven tough campaigner, defeating two incumbent Republican senators (one before the 1990 reapportionment, one after) in a decade in office.

After announcing his retirement Wednesday, Beattie was asked if Democrats could win control of the body in 2000. He said he believes Republicans will actually gain two seats this year, going from 18 Republicans to 20.

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If Republicans remain in control of the body, Senate Majority Leader Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, a 20-year-veteran of the Legislature, and Majority Whip Al Mansell, R-Sandy, will run for president. Other GOP senators could join that race.

"I imagine I will run" for the top Senate job, Mansell said this week. Hillyard said if he wins the presidency he will serve only one, two-year term. "I want to return that office to where it was before, where you just served one term."

Serving just one term as president was common for Senate leaders until the 1980s.

Deseret News staff writer Lucinda Dillon contributed to this report.

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