Expect gentler mayor and interesting new governor

Utah got two new leaders this week — kind of. Both have been around for some time.

It's now officially Gov. Olene Walker. She was sworn in Wednesday as former Gov. Mike Leavitt resigned and left for Washington, D.C., where he's the new EPA administrator.

And Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson won a second term with 54 percent of the vote over challenger Frank Pignanelli.

First Rocky.

Anderson was saying, by week's end, that he planned to work more closely with the seven-member City Council — five of whom endorsed Pignanelli. He also said there may be some divisiveness in the city and he'd work to bring all groups together.

Duh?

Polls have shown over and over again that GOP/LDS city residents don't like the mayor. He does very well with Democrats, independents and people who do not belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

While I read nothing into this coincidence, it was a bit odd to sit watching the swearing in of Walker in the Capitol Wednesday morning after Anderson had won re-election Tuesday night. President James E. Faust of the LDS Church's First Presidency gave the opening prayer and asked that divisiveness in our society become unity.

Anderson was sitting on the front row of seats, not 20 feet from President Faust. And after the tough re-election race, maybe Anderson is rethinking some of his previous actions or statements of the last four years.

There's little doubt that Anderson got a scare the last week.

Pre-election polls in both the Deseret Morning News and Salt Lake Tribune had the race close: Anderson 2 points up in the News poll, Pignanelli 1 point up in the Trib poll.

Anderson ended up with a 7.26 percentage point win — 53.63 percent to 46.37 percent. Nearly 3,000 more people voted for Anderson than Pignanelli.

Mormons and Republicans voted for Pignanelli, who is neither a Mormon nor a Republican. Democrats, independents and non-Mormons voted for Anderson, notes pollster Dan Jones, who conducted an exit poll for KSL-TV.

Thus, Anderson starts another four years in office much like he started his first term: With a large part of city residents not wanting him to be mayor.

This time around, however, Anderson won't have a huge event, like the 2002 Winter Olympics, in the middle of his term to bring all city dwellers together for a common cause.