On getting rid of the DARE youth drug-fighting program: "What I was doing there . . . is to substitute that very ineffective program with programs that have actually been established as effectively stopping drug abuse over the long term."

On opposition to Legacy Highway: "I'm not just trying to stop Legacy Highway. What we're focusing on is a mass-transit-first policy."

While he has ended or changed a number of projects in his short 18 months in office, Anderson also ticked off a number of projects that he's implemented, saying he is a builder in the community, not an obstacle.

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No better example can be found in the deal-killing area than the infrequent statements LDS Church leaders make on political issues.

After the church's First Presidency came out against the legalization of parimutuel horse betting and the citizen initiative that would have allowed it in 1992, the ballot measure failed soundly.

That was a local issue and perhaps a slam-dunk in Utah. But church leaders also have had a national impact.

They opposed the controversial MX missile railroad-based anti-ballistic missile defense system suggested for Utah's west desert in the late 1970s. Many believed the church's opposition sealed the missile's fate. MX was never built.

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The Deseret News also found that several community groups are also considered dealbreakers: the ACLU, the Sierra Club, the Utah Education Association and other special interest groups have considerable influence in stopping specific projects in their areas of concern, the newspaper's panel of experts said.

Standing up against issues publicly is always emotional, says Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt. "In every culture, saving face is a very important value. And I've never found it particularly becoming in any way to be hurtful to individuals or organizations in a public fashion. There are times when you cannot avoid it" and have to publicly try to kill an idea.

For example, he is adamant and public today in his opposition to the plan by a business coalition called Private Fuel Storage to build a temporary storage facility for high-level nuclear fuel rods in western Utah. "And there's really no way to quietly say to them, 'I'm going to do all I can to stop what you're doing.'"

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E-MAIL: lucy@desnews.com ; bbjr@desnews.com