Dave Buhler is an upbeat kind of guy: He's positive about tomorrow, eager to see what's ahead and how he can make it better.

You wouldn't know it from just looking at him. The 50-year-old Salt Lake city councilman has kind of a hound-dog appearance, with a bit of a stoop-shoulder, "awe, come on" demeanor.

He readily makes jokes about himself and seems a bit embarrassed talking about his political accomplishments.

He is not the kind of guy to stand out in a crowd. But in a crowd he is — one of nine candidates who have filed to run for Salt Lake City mayor.

If Mayor Rocky Anderson talks easily about himself — and likes the TV cameras — Buhler doesn't.

A number of politicians these days will gladly say they are a workhorse, not a show horse, even when it isn't true. Buhler actually fits that description.

This is Buhler's second run for mayor. In 1991, when he was 34, Buhler got into the final election with Deedee Corradini. She swamped him — 55 percent to 45 percent.

Corradini was the insider, Democratic female candidate. Buhler was the outsider, a Republican, white male Mormon candidate.

"I was a bit brash back then. I had never run for office before, although I had run some campaigns," says Buhler, who is the Utah System of Higher Education's associate commissioner for public affairs.

Buhler has racked up more experience since then. In 1994, he ran as a Republican for the state Senate and won. Beaten in his re-election bid in 1998, he jumped into a non-partisan City Council race (in an east-side district) in 1999, won the seat and won re-election in 2003.

Always the campaign strategist, Buhler has only run for open seats or for re-election. He has never challenged an incumbent — and won't again this year, because Anderson is retiring.

Jill Remington Love is a long-time Democrat who serves on the council with Buhler.

"He is a moderate Republican — I saw that in his (state) Senate work," says Love, who is endorsing Buhler's mayoral candidacy this year. "He's one of the good Republicans."

Love says that when she first came on the council, Buhler was already an established member. Early in that year, an ordinance on street artists selling their wares came before the council. Where could the artists do that? Would they set up a sidewalk shop outside of an established art gallery?

"The issue had a bit of political tinge to it. I figured we (Buhler and I) would be on opposite sides. But we talked. We compromised. And I found him reasonable," Love says. "He has a very even keel."

Buhler is a political junkie of the first order, she says.