He'd left Utah State University and a full-ride football scholarship due to an injury, planning to work for a year in the mines. One year became three, but as sudden as the knock on his door one morning, he was done.

"It was the sheriff's deputy," Dmitrich said. "He said, 'You're dad's covered up. You ought to come. . . . I went up there and they'd just pulled the bodies out." That's when he realized, "Maybe I ought to get out of the mines."

Although he has worked for the industry in government affairs since then, Dmitrich never went underground again; he didn't even return to the mine to clean out his locker.

Handling government affairs for a local bank, along with a high profile as a referee for just about every sport in the area, brought him to the attention of the Democratic Party. At the time, the party leaders were looking for someone to run for the Utah House from one of their only strongholds in Republican-dominated Utah. They turned to Dmitrich, then just 31 years old.

Unlike his predecessors, Dmitrich didn't antagonize the GOP majority. "I said I'll never be that way. I don't think that was good for the party." Soon, he was winning re-election and then leadership positions.

Instead, he adopted what he calls a "schmooze style. I thought it was pretty effective." But some Democrats didn't, and Dmitrich eventually lost his House leadership position to a group that saw itself as younger and more aggressive.

Dmitrich regained his leadership role after he was elected to the Senate. Often called old-school, he said he learned how to get things done as a young man in a rough town.

"I always say it's a lot like when I used to go to the bars," he said. "I'd always find the biggest, toughest guy in there and make friends with him in case I got into a fight. And I do the same thing politically. You pick the biggest, toughest guy — which happens to be the Republican party — and make friends."

One GOP member and friend is former House Speaker Nolan Karras, also a candidate for governor last year.

"We probably couldn't be more different, but you can trust Mike Dmitrich," said Karras, an investment adviser in Roy. "He's just a guy you can take to the bank."

The pair collaborated on getting legislation through, Karras said. "I knew I could trust him, and he could trust me," he said, praising Dmitrich's willingness to cooperate with the majority party. "If you want to be effective, here's a technique that's been proven over and over again."