Buttars gets nod from S.L. County GOP

Buttars said the state election office will look into where the mailer came from. The mailer says it was paid for "by Senate District 10 Citizens for Fair Taxation" — but there is no such group registered with the state elections office. The mailer quotes an earlier Deseret News poll of Senate District 10 registered voters that found 67 percent of respondents saying Buttars shouldn't be re-elected; even 54 percent of District 10 Republicans said someone new should serve.

After an anonymous mailer was sent out against some GOP candidates several years ago, the Republican-controlled Legislature made it against the law for any group to send out anonymous political material. All such groups must register with the state before spending money on Utah campaigns.

Buttars will now face Democrat John Rendell in the final election. District 10 is heavily Republican, and Rendell will have an uphill fight.

Andersen, a freshman legislator seeking her first re-election, told the Deseret News last week that she thought she had a fair shot at eliminating Christensen Saturday by getting more than 60 percent of the vote. Instead, Christensen got 70 percent, ending Andersen's legislative career. Andersen said Saturday she will support Christensen. But last week she told the newspaper that Christensen wants to return to the House for his own personal political reasons, perhaps running for Utah's new 4th congressional seat in 2012.

Interestingly enough, Andersen had the endorsement of a number of her House and Senate GOP colleagues, including Reps. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George; Becky Lockhart, R-Provo (wife of GOP chairman Stan Lockhart); Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem; Sens. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, and Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who stood with her during her caucus speech.

Christensen has a combative personality and bumped heads with some of the legislative insiders in his previous state House service. Christensen gave up his House District 48 seat in 2006 to run against U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, losing that race.

Now Christensen will face former Democratic House member Trish Beck, who held the Sandy seat before Christensen defeated her.

With a convention battle over, Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, is setting his sights on Senate leadership.

On Saturday, he said he plans on running for Senate president to "swing" the power away from Utah County. He said if he's elected, omnibus bills will be a thing of the past.