'Nonpartisan' S.L. race favors Demos, Rocky

With the filing deadline for running for Salt Lake City mayor a week away, the political realities of taking on Mayor Rocky Anderson are looming large.

Rich McKeown, who lost a close challenge to former Mayor Deedee Corradini in 1995, has decided not to run this year after all. McKeown, who was a Democrat when he ran against Corradini, is now a Republican and serving as chief of staff to Gov. Mike Leavitt.

"I've decided to stick with the governor," he said this week, adding politicos can read anything they wish into that decision, considering that Leavitt will announce later this month if he's running for re-election next year or retiring.

Still on the GOP mayoral fence is state Sen. James Evans, R-Salt Lake. Some say Evans, a harsh critic of Anderson, won't get in; others say he just might.

If no Republican jumps into the race at the last minute, that political field will be left open for Molonai Hola, a newcomer to elective politics. (Hola, a GOP businessman, as of Thursday morning had not officially filed for the mayor's office, city recorder officials said.)

Anderson is a Democrat, one who called himself a liberal during a speech at this spring's Salt Lake County Democratic Convention.

His main opponent, polling and fund raising shows, is former Utah House Minority Leader Frank Pignanelli, also a Democrat.

While the mayor's race is officially nonpartisan (no political party accompanies a candidate's name on the ballot), the city hasn't elected a Republican mayor since Jake Garn in the early 1970s.

Recent final mayoral campaigns have had two Democrats facing each other.

GOP strategists face a quandary this year.

Many Republicans loath Anderson. Recent polling shows 82 percent of city Republicans don't want Anderson re-elected. (He has considerable support among Democrats and independents.)

But Republicans, who outnumber Democrats two-to-one across the state, in Salt Lake City make up only a third of voters. A third say they are Democrats, a third independents. But most of the independents vote Democratic in partisan races, such as governor, Congress and Legislature, says Deseret Morning News pollster Dan Jones.

So the city is one of the few jurisdictions in Utah where being a Republican doesn't help at the polls — it could actually hurt a candidate.

Accordingly, GOP insiders who really want Anderson gone realize a strong GOP candidate could hurt that ultimate goal.