S.L. 2-AND 4-YEAR COMMISSION RACES ARE APPROACHING WIRE BRADLEY, STEWART DIFFER ON HOW CLOSE `GAME' IS

Jim Bradley, the Democratic challenger for the four-year Salt Lake County Commission seat, likens the last few days of his campaign to the final minutes of a close basketball game.

"We're four down in the fourth quarter. It's time to put on the full-court press," Bradley said, referring to one public opinion poll showing him trailing Republican Mike Stewart, a two-term incumbent, by only 4 percentage points.But Stewart, while certainly not ready to claim victory, doesn't think the game is quite as close as Bradley believes. Based on contacts with other pollsters, Stewart thinks his lead is probably closer to 10 points.

What is not disputed, however, is that Bradley has closed the 20-point gap that stood at 51-31 in favor of the incumbent during the first week of October.

Bradley attributes his late rally to steady, hard work at people-to-people campaigning that is paying off in terms of increased name recognition. He also feels voters are finally thinking about their election choices, something they really consider - especially in local government races - only days before they vote.

"People are raising their consciousness toward the election and giving thought to their decisions," the Democrat said. "My thesis in this race has always been that people are not satisfied with county government. People are looking for alternatives, and my name is one they're becoming familiar with."

Stewart disagrees that people are dissatisfied with the county's operations. Salt Lake County is leaner and more efficient that it was eight years ago when he came into office, he said.

"We've literally pruned the size of government by 20 percent while maintaining the level of services and seeing the county's population grow by 104,000 in the past eight years," Stewart said. "We've used energy and creativityto make that happen."

But many county services are so-called "silent services," the kind of agencies and programs that voters may use without even realizing which government entity is offering them, Stewart said. He uses a story to illustrate the point.

At one campaign event, a woman asked Stewart what Salt Lake County does. Whenhe started going down his memorized list of the county's 104 agencies, the womansuddenly got tears in her eyes. Her daughter, a runaway, had spent some time at a county youth home. "I didn't know that (youth home) was you Salt Lake County)people," Stewart quotes the woman.

One reason Stewart may be having a tough race is that local government office holders apparently don't enjoy the same degree of incumbent's advantage on election day that seems to go with many state and national elective offices.