3 council races too close to call

Apart from the mayor's race, the most hotly contested races in Salt Lake County were too close to call by press time Tuesday, though a few appeared to be decided.

In the most active of the County Council races, the at-large seat was still too close to call, though Democrat Jenny Wilson was leading by a small margin. Wilson spent by far the most money of all the candidates, $135,000, according to campaign finance disclosures filed a week ago, three times the amount spent by GOP incumbent Steve Harmsen, who raised $44,000.

Harmsen ran a relatively low-key campaign during most of the election season but stepped things up significantly with billboards and other activity in the final few weeks and days of the campaign. Wilson carried out a long, active campaign. The last Deseret Morning News/KSL poll conducted in the final week of October showed the race at a statistical dead heat.

"We'll have to wait and see what happens," Harmsen said at 11 p.m. "It appears there are some Republicans defecting."

The most contested of the district council seats was in District 4, where Democrat Dina Blaes ran against Republican Mark Crockett. While Crockett maintained a slight lead by press time, the race was still too close to call.

District 2, however, was no contest. As expected, GOP incumbent Michael Jensen easily won his election in the heavily Republican district — in fact, he effectively won more than a week ago, when his Democratic opponent, Steve Shamy, had to withdraw after it was discovered that Shamy did not live within district boundaries.

In Republican-dominated District 6, incumbent Republican Marv Hendrickson was expected to beat Democrat Chris Cage, but this was another race that was running too close to call.

The same went for the auditor's race. In normal times, the county auditor's office would not be up for election for another two years, but these have not been normal times in Salt Lake County.

Last summer, auditor Craig Sorensen was discovered to have been using the county gas card for personal vehicles and resigned in the face of felony charges.

The Republican Central Committee chose investment analyst and Republican activist Sean Thomas as the interim auditor. He campaigned against Democrat Peter Stevens, a CPA who argued he should be given the job due to his accounting credentials.

The winner will have to stand for re-election to a four-year term in 2006, the normal election time for the county's assessor, auditor, clerk, district attorney, recorder, sheriff, surveyor and treasurer.

As expected, and as polls showed throughout the campaign season, preliminary results showed voters reauthorizing the 1/10th of 1 percent Zoo, Arts & Parks sales tax to help fund Hogle Zoo, Utah Symphony & Opera, Ballet West and many other, smaller arts organizations, and to construct recreation centers.

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com