They did disagree on Amendment 3, even though both said they favored defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Matheson, though, opposed the amendment because of the expected legal fight over language restricting the rights of relationships other than marriage.

In the last week of the campaign, Matheson tried to highlight other differences by launching what the Huntsman camp described as a "mild attack ad" about its candidate's support of tuition tax credits and a proposal to move the state prison from Draper to Tooele.

Despite raising some $2 million, Matheson still faced a double-digit lead by Huntsman in the polls leading up to Election Day. Huntsman, who was expected to spend almost twice as much money, was up by 16 points in the final Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll before the vote.

Huntsman had to get through the state GOP convention and win a primary fight with former Utah House Speaker Nolan Karras before becoming the party's nominee. Matheson had no Democratic challengers.

Democrats had long sought Matheson as a candidate, hoping to capitalize on the reputation of his popular father, but he only seriously considered running once before, for the U.S. Senate in 1991 for a seat that was opening up with the retirement of then-Sen. Jake Garn.

He finally followed his brother, Rep. Jim Matheson, into politics, but the brothers have kept their distance throughout the campaign. Jim Matheson struggled to hang onto his seat in Congress from an increasingly Republican 2nd District.

Huntsman had long been discussed as a likely gubernatorial candidate, even though there was no shortage of GOP contenders, including Gov. Olene Walker, the first female to hold the office.

Walker became governor last year when former Gov. Mike Leavitt was named head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Leavitt had served 11 years as the state's chief executive, almost three full terms.

The transition to a new administration will be "as smooth and seamless as possible," Walker said Tuesday night. She said Huntsman would be welcome at her office's budget discussions later this week.

"I think I was in the hunt," Walker said of her own short-lived campaign to stay in office. "Maybe it will make it easier for women to run for governor in the future."

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E-mail: lisa@desnews.com