"Voters are looking for a problem solver," he said. "They're looking for someone who's squeaky clean."

Corroon has emphasized quality growth as one of his primary political themes, saying growth and planning need to follow a cohesive strategy. He favors uniform landscaping codes to conserve water and wants to limit development in the canyon areas.

"We spend a lot of time growing but not a lot of time planning for that growth," he said. With regard to water, "we have two choices: spend money on water infrastructure or conserve."

A past president of the Salt Lake Vest Pocket Business Coalition, Corroon is a strong supporter of local businesses. He wants the county to coordinate economic development, something that is currently divided between many different agencies. He also wants to push tourism more strongly.

Corroon favors expansion of mass transit solutions rather than emphasizing the automobile, and wants the county to fund after-school programs and child care, as well as more affordable housing.

Nevertheless, Corroon has said many times that he will streamline county government — but not with the across-the-board approach that Cook favors.

"I would look for more efficiencies," he said.

He will strive to keep taxes level, Corroon says, but stops short of a promise not to raise taxes, which he says would be foolhardy.

Corroon is a developer, and developers are not popular people in the county right now. But he distinguishes himself with the size of his business — "small, not sprawl" — and says county government has catered too much to big development and big business.

"The county has been willing to make variances to the highest bidder," he said. "We need to treat everyone the same."

If there is any doubt that Corroon and his wife, Amy (a Salt Lake native whom he met on a blind date), are devout Catholics, he says to just look at their children: a girl and two boys, ages 3, 2 and 1. And more on the way.

"I keep threatening my wife that if we don't have twins we'll have to adopt some," he said. Corroon and his brother, fraternal twins, are the latest in 11 straight generations of twins in his family.

Corroon grew up with a strong, church-going (and Republican) mother in Long Island and Connecticut. He was an altar boy.

"Mom wanted a priest in the family," he said. "It wasn't in the cards."

While he has never been fanatical about spiritual things, he unashamedly identifies himself as religious. In fact, "living in this culture (LDS-dominant Utah) makes you more cognizant of your own religion."

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com