Ivory won over the gathering with two short speeches in which he reminded those present that he ran Jake Garn's first Senate campaign and was president of the committee to re-elect Richard Nixon.

"The best place for a write-in candidate is America," he said. "What's more American than that?"

In addition to the already stacked odds against write-in candidates, Ivory faces a situation in which two Republican candidates and one quasi-Republican, who likely will split much of the conservative vote, are running against one Democrat.

"As much as I disagree with the Republicans politically, I would never wish this on them," County Councilman Joe Hatch said.

Nevertheless, "I have yet to see anyone excited about Corroon," Ivory said. "I think I'll get the Democrats' vote, frankly."

Corroon and Cook criticized Ivory for being a developer (both have made developers' influence in the county a big issue in their campaigns), a point Ivory was quick to rebut. He noted several times Tuesday that he has passed on his company to his son.

"I am not a developer," he said.

Salt Lake County planner Mike Barrett said Ivory Homes "does a ton of business with the county" but said he didn't see any conflict since state regulations govern planning and development decisions.

"The mayor can't override the code," he said. "Nobody can."

Nevertheless, developers have to get county authorization for zoning changes and site plans, decisions that are made by the Planning Commission, with variances heard by the Board of Adjustment.

Planning and Development Services director Jeff Daugherty said Ivory Homes has no projects pending before the county at present.

"There are developers that we struggle with, but Ivory isn't one of them," he said. "They run a pretty fair ship. I won't say they haven't had their problems, but they've never been belligerent."

In the meantime, with Workman still in the race, the tense, partisan atmosphere at county headquarters is likely to continue.

"It was really bad today," a weary Councilman Randy Horiuchi said with a sigh. "I didn't sign up for this."

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com; bbjr@desnews.com