Mayoral hopeful eschews labels

"There are major differences between the candidates," Christensen said. "Some will say, 'Well, we've got great choices this year,' and I think they're nice people, but we're very different people."

He points to what he calls the "better-better-better campaign" he sees among other candidates.

"If I ask you, 'Do you think we ought to have better parks, better police, better fire' — better, better, better — is there any one of those questions you wouldn't answer in the affirmative?" he asked. "How do you get there? That's where I and the other candidates are going to start to separate."

If Christensen's campaign has a theme, it would probably be a phrase he regularly uses in discussing his efforts as a key player in helping bring the Olympics to Utah or light rail to the University of Utah: "It's not what to do, but how to do it."

Christensen emphasizes his business experience, but he stresses that he doesn't see the mayoral office as a purely managerial job.

"You also must have the vision of what Salt Lake can become in 25 or 50 years," he said.

His backers agree that he has that skill set.

"I've dealt with him in a number of different capacities and have always found him to be extremely bright, hard-working and a great manager," Anderson said. "He's got that vital quality of having a great work ethic, a lot of good experience and excellent judgment."

For his part, Garn also praises the experience, adding that Christensen would bring a different style to Salt Lake City governance.

"He's always got a straight answer," Garn said.

Christensen entered politics in 1993 — on the Fourth of July. Councilman Don Hale, who was not running for reelection, visited Christensen's home and asked him to consider running to replace him in the Sugar House district.

The two sat on Christensen's porch, along with one or two other people Hale had brought along to help drive the point home. "They made it clear they wouldn't leave until I decided to run for City Council," Christensen said.

The next eight years, Christensen said, taught him a lot.

"When you serve people, you learn that if it's truly public service, the person in the position gets far more out of it than the people you're serving most often," he said.

But even as Christensen pushes a populist message, he carries another image: the money candidate.

In the most recent round of campaign finance reporting, Christensen had raised more than $500,000 in donations, more than double the amount collected by the second-place fund-raiser, Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson.