In the race for Salt Lake City mayor, the key word is shaping up to be "progressive."

In a forum Wednesday at the University of Utah, two of the 10 candidates — a Democrat who has led the charge for several progressive causes on the county level and a Republican endorsed by Democratic Mayor Rocky Anderson — touted credentials they each say will help them fight for liberal causes while making nice with more conservative leaders throughout the rest of the state.

"I'm fiscally conservative and socially progressive," said former city councilman Keith Christensen, a Republican, at the first of three meet-the-candidates forums sponsored by KUER FM90 at the university's Hinckley Institute of Politics. Each forum will feature two candidates.

Jenny Wilson, a Democrat and Salt Lake County councilwoman, was the other candidate at Wednesday's forum. She ticked through a list of her progressive credentials — pro-choice, pro-gay, a champion of clean air and open space.

She said her experience working as chief of staff for then-U.S. Rep. Bill Orton, a conservative Democrat from Utah, as well as her two years on a county council with a 5-4 Republican majority, have taught her "consensus-building" skills, something both Wilson and Christensen said is important for Salt Lake City's mayor.

"It's a little tricky in Salt Lake City because we are a blue city in a very red state," Wilson said. "I think it's important for our mayor to stand up for the constituents in the city, which is progressive."

Christensen said leadership and management skills are more important in a mayor than political labels. "To talk about blue and red, in my opinion, is not entirely accurate," he said.

The mayor's race is officially nonpartisan, with ballots that do not identify a candidate's party affiliation and no active role played by state or county political parties. But candidates' partisan identification is usually widely known by voters, and Salt Lake City hasn't had a Republican mayor since Jake Garn, who was elected in 1971.

In December, Anderson will end his second and final term, capping an eight-year period during which he capitalized on the city's status as a liberal enclave in a conservative state. Wilson and Christensen each credited Anderson with selling Salt Lake as a progressive mecca to a national audience but said they would handle themselves differently as mayor.

"Speaking out and using the bully pulpit and the voice of the mayor in the community is important," Wilson said. "I would not question what (Anderson) has done. I would question the time he's spent away."