Mayoral races throughout the state will swing into high gear during the coming weeks.
Along the Wasatch Front, the races likely to receive the most attention involve a mayor well-accustomed to pitched battles, bids from current state legislators and a possible gubernatorial candidate.
With the main exceptions of Salt Lake City and Ogden, most mayoral positions are open during this coming election, as are a number of City Council seats. The filing deadline is Wednesday, with primaries on Oct. 2 and the general election on Nov. 6.
Compared to her previous four years of leadership, the heat of a campaign may seem mild to West Jordan Mayor Donna Evans. To serve a second term as the leader of the city's 65,000 residents, she will have to defeat Rep. Bryan Holladay, R-West Jordan, and Steve Mascaro, who has served on various city committees.
Evans took on a faction of the City Council and key city administrators after she won office, helping to expose several instances of impropriety in how West Jordan was managed, including the failure to properly bid a multimillion-dollar soccer complex. A lengthy district attorney's office investigation found no criminal wrongdoing, but the probe did lead to the eventual ouster of four top city employees.
Evans says she is seeking re-election because of projects that the city is "just starting to bring to fruition."
Among those projects is a new $2.5 million senior citizens facility, which she said will open in September. Also, the first phase of a 100-acre regional park and baseball complex will be completed this fall.
The city during Evans' term of office won Envision Utah awards for its water-conservation plan, its DAT plan and the Jordan River restoration project, she said.
Holladay, who has previously said he may keep his state Legislature position even if elected mayor, has now said he is willing to step down early from his House seat should he win as mayor. He is in his fourth term as a legislator.
He decided to challenge Evans to "see if we can bring the city back together again." He said the city continues to suffer from too much animosity and from low morale among its employees.
Another contender is Mascaro, who has been active in six different citizen committees in West Jordan.
A land-development consultant, Mascaro said he feels he can make a positive difference if elected as the city's leader.
"More than anything, I think I have the experience to handle the job."
Mascaro, a political newcomer, nevertheless has been heavily involved in city government, serving his fourth year on the general plan committee, where he has been elected twice as chairman.
In Utah County, the biggest race may have more intrigue for the future possibilities of one candidate than the political wranglings of the actual race. Provo Mayor Lewis Billings already has Dave Bailey, a veteran of the fire department, and John Maurin, a retired Air Force colonel, lined up against him.
With little name recognition and limited financial resources for both challengers, the task of ousting Billings is daunting. In fact, the only person who may be able to remove Billings from office could be himself, should he choose to run for governor in three years. He has said that he does not have any plans to run yet, although he has not ruled out the possibility.
While Salt Lake City does not have a race this year, Salt Lake County's two other largest cities — Sandy and West Valley City — will have races.
In Sandy, Mayor Tom Dolan, who in 1997 became the first Sandy mayor to win a second term in almost three decades, will have to defeat two experienced female challengers. Rep. Trisha Beck, D-Sandy, and City Councilwoman Linda Martinez-Saville have both stepped up against Dolan, with Beck already firing early volleys about the lack of cooperation between emergency services in the city and the county.
Although a nonpartisan race, Dolan has the strong backing of prominent Republicans, including Gov. Mike Leavitt, Sen. Orrin Hatch and state Senate President Al Mansell, R-Sandy. Democrat Beck, who has served three terms in the House representing a heavily Republican district, expects to be a casualty of legislative redistricting, so she is pursuing local politics. Martinez-Saville did not identify her party affiliation.
West Valley City's two-term Mayor Gearld Wright will face City Councilwoman Janice Fisher in a nonpartisan race.
Like most incumbents, Wright is seeking follow-through on several projects and events, which the mayor lists as the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the pursuit of light rail and work on a western transportation corridor.
During Wright's term, he has seen the city's image improve, shedding a perceived skin as a "less-desirable" place shared by the valley's west-siders.
Fisher brings to the ballot box four terms on the City Council. If elected, she would be the "pro-public-safety" mayor. "This is the thing citizens are concerned about," she said. Land use and transportation are also hot-button issues.
"We need to develop very carefully and we need to have some control over growth," Fisher said.