As mayor, the Environmental Protection Agency invited Anderson to tell a United Nation's environmental summit in New Delhi how Salt Lake City is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and otherwise improve the environment.

It's not surprising, then, to hear Anderson say he would like to be president.

"Yeah, if I had that opportunity," Anderson said. The United States could prevent many human-rights abuses if "there were someone in that office with the will and knowledge to do something about it," he said.

Tempered idealism

While such thinking may seem irrelevant to being mayor of Salt Lake City, his supporters say the mayor's idealism, energy and vision have served him well in office. And his first term as mayor has taught him to temper his passion and idealism, as well.

"Oftentimes he has to weigh what he has to give up to gain a value that is equally or more important to the city," said longtime friend Peggy Tomsic.

Anderson has taken idealistic stances on many city questions — free speech over property rights or making peace over the Main Street Plaza dispute; historic zoning over free-market business decisions in the Nordstrom/Gateway question; and campaign finance reform.

In the end, Anderson eventually reversed his original ideological stand on all three of those issues to make a decision he felt was best for the city. In fact, the former campaign finance reform champion is now planning the most expensive mayoral run in city history and has already raised about $500,000, double Pignanelli's bank account and about seven times the amount raised by Hola.

His critics have seized on those reversals and labeled Anderson as a flip-flopping politician.

While Anderson disagrees, Tomsic said the mayor would probably take more time in his second term to weigh all aspects of an issue before pronouncing his final decision. "He'll be a little more introspective before he reaches a conclusion," she said.

Unusual issues

Anderson says he has always measured himself by the positive change he can make for the betterment of society — globally and locally. That measuring stick is what drives him to be mayor, where he figures he can effect much change.

His senior adviser, D.J. Baxter, agrees. While many elected officials become bogged down by financial obstacles and city bureaucracy, Anderson remains enthusiastic, Baxter said.

"Rocky has never been daunted by the many roadblocks that present themselves in the municipal setting," Baxter said. "His passion for this work has actually increased."