3 incumbents lose in Legislature

While there is little change in the distribution of seats within the Utah Legislature after this year's elections, a couple of the districts now have a representative or senator whose party reflects their constituents' political leanings.

Only three incumbent legislators lost Tuesday, two of whom are members of the party usually considered the minority in their district. In Senate District 1, Sen. James Evans, R-Salt Lake, failed in his bid for a second term as the senator from the typically Democratic Salt Lake west side, while in the heavily Republican northern Utah House District 1, Rep. Eli Anderson, D-Tremonton, lost to Republican Rhonda Menlove.

Overall, the Legislature's balance of power will look almost identical to last year — skewed heavily in favor of the Republicans — despite 90 races and challenges to GOP candidates in all of the Senate races and two-thirds of the House races. In both chambers, Democrats failed to win the seats needed to reach a one-third minority, which would have given them the power to stop veto overrides or constitutional amendments and continue floor debates.

A vast majority of the races were won by significant margins, leaving only about a half-dozen races closely contested. Even in the 62 races that had a candidate from both major parties in the running, 35 of them were won by margins of 60 percent or greater.

Democrats did, however, meet their primary goal of getting rid of Evans, who defeated Nisa Sisneros two years ago to give Republicans control of one of the state's most Democratic districts. In a race that was as close as expected, former representative Fred Fife won by 360 votes, which gave him 49 percent of the vote to Evans' 46 percent.

Besides Senate 1, Republicans easily won the two races that the Democrats harbored optimism about winning. In Senate 8, a southeastern Salt Lake County district in which voters often cross party lines, Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights, defeated Democrat Lewis Garrett by 14 percent, 57 to 43 percent. Democrats also hoped to take Senate 19 from the GOP after Sen. David Gladwell, R-Ogden, retired, but Republican Allen Christensen won resoundingly, 62 percent to Democrat Jim Hasenyager's 38 percent.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Donald Dunn said that while obviously disappointed, it would have been tough to win the races lower on the ballot in areas where the support for President Bush was so overwhelming. Last month, he said that the party hoped to win all three seats needed to reach one-third in the Senate.

"Statistically, they were races we had a chance at winning," Dunn said. "But it's very difficult when you're running in a year where (Bush) gets 70 percent of the vote."