From Deseret News archives:

Salt Lake mayoral race is a tossup

Any 2 of top mayoral hopefuls could win primary

Published: Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007 12:22 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
The primary election for Salt Lake mayor is a tossup — with three top contenders so closely bunched that which two of them advances to the final November election will be the pair who gets their supporters to the polls, a public opinion survey shows.

A new poll for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV by Dan Jones & Associates shows that individual support for Jenny Wilson, Dave Buhler and Ralph Becker falls within the survey's margin of error.

"It's a horse race. Any two of the three" could go into the final campaign, said Jones, who has polled in Utah for more than 30 years.

The nine-member field will be winnowed to two on Tuesday. The final election is Nov. 6.

"We did notice that the last two nights (of polling) Becker came up" in the competition, Jones said. So the Utah House minority leader seems to have some momentum.

Still in fourth place, even though he has out-raised the other three in campaign funds, is Keith Christensen.

Wilson, Buhler, Becker and Christensen have always been the four top candidates among the nine who filed, both in money raised, money spent and polling support.

But while previous surveys showed Wilson and Buhler as the top two candidates, now Becker has joined them, Jones found in polling 500 Salt Lake City voters this week.

Story continues below
The new survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent, which means the numbers in support of Wilson, Buhler and Becker are all within the margin of error. Any of the three could be first, second or third.

Jones found that if the primary election were today, Wilson gets 26 percent support from registered voters; Buhler is at 24 percent and Becker is at 22 percent.

Christensen is at 12 percent, about where he was in the newspaper's last survey in July.

The other candidates fall off in the new poll. Surgeon J.P. Hughes, who now has a TV ad running, gets 2 percent support. John Renteria gets 1 percent, while Rainer Huck, Quinn Cady McDonough and Robert "Lot" Muscheck don't get 1 percent support.

Eleven percent told Jones that they didn't know who they may vote for, while 2 percent mentioned someone else who won't be on the primary ballot.

Buhler is making his second run for the mayorship. Buhler, a former GOP state senator who has been on the City Council for eight years, got into the 1991 final mayoral race but lost to former Mayor Deedee Corradini.

The rest are running for mayor for the first time.

Recent comments

Becker would be the best and most effective leader. Wilson needs...

Douglas | Sept. 10, 2007 at 8:10 a.m.

Becker is too passive. I'm voting Jenny

WC | Sept. 8, 2007 at 11:00 p.m.

Please for sake of all Utahns....elect Dave Buhler. The capital city...

Gordon | Sept. 8, 2007 at 10:03 p.m.

previousnext

Latest comments

All lawyer/legal tactics aside, there are only three ultimate possibilities:...

"I read they do like people w/ accounting degrees and/or people of the LDS...

Utah man dies in Oregon crash

God was only aiming for one of us. The rest of us have minor bumps bruises,...

Welcome sir ! You're extremely important to all of us ! Thank you for your...

FBI names new Salt Lake office head

Welcome to the Salt Lake City Field Office Mr. McTighe. Maybe we'll get some...

Baby-bottle dangers

Interesting article, but don't understand the danger of non carbon receipts....

Letters: A poisonous potion

The "progressives" and "liberals" who think that the Constitution has no...

Utah Jazz: Miles has cast removed

Soon we will see if CJ is as good as you think he is?? I'm not sure he would...

That's kind of the point. Most people don't mind Bingham or Alta saying they...

JD you and your school SS are nothing but losers! your season is over!!!!!!...

Advertisements
Advertisement