Exit polls yield some very interesting information

LDS voters in Utah still went with McCain for president, even though nationally Republicans rejected former Gov. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, as their party's nominee and McCain didn't pick Romney as his vice presidential running mate. Jones' poll shows that McCain got 75 percent of the Utah Mormon vote, while only 21 percent went with Obama.

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is a political template for winning Republicans. Matheson won his largest victory ever this year, and he swept up into his support all kinds of voters in Salt Lake County. Matheson got nearly 40 percent of the GOP vote in his district, which takes in the eastern part of Salt Lake County, the northeastern tip of Utah County, and counties to the east, south and southwest, including Washington and Iron counties. That is impressive. Republican Bill Dew got just 2 percent of the Democratic vote.

And Matheson outpolled Dew, 51-45, among LDS voters. Matheson got 77 percent of the independent vote, compared to Dew's 15 percent. Considering that Matheson barely won re-election in 2002 with less than 1 percent of the vote (after the GOP-controlled Legislature redistricted him into a more Republican area), 2008 was a real redemption for Matheson.

In his Salt Lake County mayoral re-election, Democrat Peter Corroon mirrored Matheson's across-the-board popularity. Corroon got 37 percent of the GOP vote and 77 percent of the independent vote. Fifty-one percent of county Mormons voted for Corroon.

In all of this, GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. set a new statewide record majority in his re-election, getting 78 percent of the vote. Huntsman got 42 percent of the Democratic vote and three-quarters of the independent vote, Jones' exit poll shows. The governor received 88 percent of the LDS vote.

This all shows that not only did many Utahns split-ticket vote this year, they did so with huge swings of support — like a third to one half of the one party's support going to the opposing party's candidate.

Conclusion: Utahns, both Republicans, Democrats and Mormons alike, are less dogmatic, less committed to a party's ideals, than they are to what an individual candidate is saying. So much for the Utah Republican Party's "I Can" public relations campaign this past summer — at least how it played out in some of the major races.

Jones' exit data shows that Democrats have some real possibilities for gaining more strength in Salt Lake County (although there were disappointing showings for the minority party in Weber and Utah counties).

It also shows that Utah Republicans, while still in a strong majority in the state, have some party rebuilding to do, especially in Salt Lake County, and statewide among their own party members, independents and LDS voters.

Deseret News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com.