Salt Lake City voters have not kicked out an incumbent mayor in more than 25 years — and the streak held Tuesday with Mayor Rocky Anderson advancing to the November final election.
Primary elections were held in cities and towns across the state, with the top two vote-getters in each contest keeping their political hopes alive until the Nov. 4 finals.
Anderson received 45 percent of the vote, unofficial results show, and will meet second-place finisher Frank Pignanelli, who got 30 percent of the vote, in what could be a contentious battle to lead the state's largest city the next four years.
Molonai Hola, the lone Republican in the non-partisan mayor's race, was eliminated. He finished third with 24 percent of the vote. Hola's exit means that for the third straight mayoral final two Democrats will face each other.
In Ogden, first-term Mayor Matthew Godfrey pushed aside eight challengers to make it into the final. He'll face Jesse Garcia, a current city councilman.
And in Holladay, one of the state's newest cities, voters picked Dennis Webb and Bob Neslen for the final vote. Holladay's first mayor, Dennis Larkin, was basically fired in August when city voters elected to change a new form of government, requiring a new mayor's race this fall.
Most other cities and towns had council races Tuesday as their mayors' terms were not up for another two years.
When it became clear to Pignanelli that he survived the primary, he said the final campaign "will be totally different" than the race so far. In part, that's because he's taken Anderson's best shot — a half a million dollar fund-raising campaign, Pignanelli said.
While he was glad to grab the second spot, pre-primary polls showed Pignanelli further ahead — and Hola further behind — than the actual results Tuesday.
Several weeks ago, Pignanelli told the Deseret Morning News that he didn't want to come out of Tuesday's primary 20 percentage points behind Anderson. With the mayor's money and name identification, it would be difficult to make up that kind of yardage.
But now he's facing a big hill to climb, ending up 15 percentage points behind Anderson. Putting the best face on it, Pignanelli said, "We're still within striking distance" of the mayor.
At one point in the evening, as Anderson watched second place switch between Hola and Pignanelli, the mayor joked to one of his supporters: "I should have voted for Hola." An Anderson/Hola final would have better for the mayor. Salt Lakers have not put a Republican in the mayor's office since 1971.
Hola himself was nothing but smiles all evening, even as he saw Pignanelli's slim lead grow to more than 1,400 votes as the night wore on. Hola said the results were exciting because they were unexpected.
"When I ran, I wanted to have fun, to gain experience and winning was third," said Hola. "I'm so excited about our campaign and what we accomplished. With the resources we had and the limited cash flow, the results were phenomenal."
Hola said he wouldn't decide right away whether he would endorse Anderson or Pignanelli or stay out of the final contest.
Does a GOP Mormon have a shot at the mayor's race in years to come? "I never believed" those who said a Republican Mormon couldn't win, said Hola. "Obviously it's a nonpartisan race, but I've never shied away from being a Republican."
Pignanelli was pleased with second place, even if he just nipped Hola. "We did this door to door, one (person) at a time," Pignanelli said. Pignanelli said he can capture most of Hola's voters, as a Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll indicated last weekend.
"But Frank can't take either (Hola's) Republican or Hispanic votes for granted," warned former Democratic state Sen. Rex Black, who represented the Rose Park area of the city for several decades.
Pignanelli took some solace in the fact that Anderson got less than 50 percent of the vote. "That means a majority" of voters "want a change." Anderson had no comment on getting less than 50 percent. Asked about winning by 15 percentage points and starting the final leg of the campaign well ahead, Anderson said he takes nothing for granted.
"All I'm going to say is that I'll continue to work hard and communicate a positive message," said the mayor. "It doesn't matter to me whether we win by 2 percent or 30 percent (tonight). We'll continue to run our same positive campaign."
Anderson has put together an impressive campaign machine this year. He's raised more than $560,000 and spent more than $400,000. He had TV and radio ads running the past several weeks.
Pignanelli, a former Democratic leader in the Utah House and now a lobbyist, has raised more than $260,000. But Pignanelli chose not to spend any money on TV or radio before the primary, saving his cash and concentrating instead on a more grassroots, turn-out-the-vote efforts. It was a gamble that Pignanelli says paid off.
Anderson starts the final four weeks of campaigning with around $150,000; Pignanelli starts with nearly $100,000, their last campaign reports show.
The issues argued over the next month will be much like those expressed since last spring: Anderson's personal style of management, which Pignanelli says is controversial and confrontational; economic development in downtown Salt Lake City; crime; transportation; planning and zoning; and safe neighborhoods.
Anderson says the city is better off now than four years ago; that he's built a strong City Hall team. Pignanelli says much is lacking; the city work force demoralized.
And across the state in cities large and small, similar local issues will be debated by hundreds of candidates seeking to lead the state's 237 cities and towns.
Voter turnout Tuesday depended, of course, on how compelling each municipalities' races were.
In Salt Lake, 28 percent of voters went to the polls Tuesday. That compares to 26 percent in 1999 when Anderson bested a primary field of 11 candidates on his way to winning his first term, replacing the retiring Mayor Deedee Corradini.
In Ogden, Godfrey did little campaigning the last week because his wife had a baby. Early Thursday morning, Monica Godfrey, gave birth to a baby boy — Grant Matthew Godfrey — the couple's fifth child.
"I went to one debate Monday night and put up a few signs late at night, but (otherwise) I didn't do anything," he said. "Everybody else was cracking down and making things happen, but I promised my wife I would take a week off and I didn't even want to attempt backing out on her."
Turns out no strategy is good strategy. Godfrey swamped his nine challengers, winning 50 percent of the vote. Second-place Garcia said: "It's going to be a close general (election). "We've got a lot of work to do, but I think we can do it."
Contributing: Brady Snyder, Lisa Riley Roche, Josh Loftin, Alan Edwards, Zack Van Eyck.
E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com