It is disheartening to lose a race — although as a campaign manager, Buhler never did. But he knows firsthand how tough it is to lose as a candidate. Buhler got into the 1991 Salt Lake mayoral final with then political novice Deedee Corradini — a Democrat.

Buhler lost. And Ted Wilson was Corradini's campaign co-chairman — "a turn of the tables," as Ted Wilson puts it.

Buhler then ran for the Utah Senate from his city east-side district. He won, only to be defeated in re-election four years later by a Democrat.

"Dave seems to have the Republican vote locked up" in the mayor's race, said Ted Wilson, referring to a new poll that was conducted for The Salt Lake Tribune. "He may well get into the final election," Ted Wilson notes of the current race. The father hopes that his daughter will be in that final with Buhler.

"And then Dave will be swimming upstream against the (partisan) political waters — as I was in 1988. By two-to-one, the city is Democrat, just like the state was Republican" back in 1988.

So Buhler is back in a close political race. And he's facing another Wilson.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com