"The Republicans have done some real damaging things" to their party and their candidates this year, and voters will yet hold them accountable at the polls, he said. "But it's hard when you are the minority party" in such a strong Republican state.

Some actions by Republicans were just stupid, he believes. Others, like the state GOP's efforts "coordinating" campaigns with Swallow and the NRCC and Carsno's challenging of District 37 voters may actually break the law, Dunn said. (Cannon says no laws were broken in the state GOP's fliers incident, although some poor judgment may have been used.)

"The fact is, this is just a very red (Republican) state," Cannon said Sunday.

"It was a nightmare in Salt Lake County" just a month ago, Cannon admits. "We (in the party) did our job — we took arrows in the chest" for disgraced county GOP Mayor Nancy Workman. "

But even in the county, we saw that people were not blaming other Republicans for Nancy's problems," he added.

A turnaround for county candidates and the Swallow campaign came with Ivory's write-in campaign, which has now turned to an official Republican candidacy. "All of the local campaigns saw this: When Ellis got in, the numbers in Salt Lake County for Republican candidates went up. Went up for Swallow. Went up for (GOP gubernatorial candidate) Jon Huntsman. It was real. It was palpable," Cannon said.

Yes, mistakes were made. "But we are like a number of other very Republican states — like Kansas or Idaho. People are forgiving" for Republican miscues "because, at the heart, they're Republicans."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com