Voters oust 2 incumbent mayors

The tallies of Tuesday's primary elections have one incumbent mayor conceding defeat and another who vows to challenge the results of his neck-and-neck contest.

By all counts, Clearfield is slated to have a new mayor come January, but don't tell incumbent Thomas Waggoner.

"It's not over," said Waggoner, a two-term mayor who also served four years on the City Council. "No, we don't concede; there are still votes left to be counted."

Farther south in politically contentious West Jordan, incumbent Mayor Bryan Holladay accepts his 64-vote loss. Even though there remains a slim possibility Tuesday's canvass of the ballots — which includes late-mailers — could bump him back into the race, Holladay said what is done is done.

Holladay attributes his loss to voter turnout.

"We realized with the poor turnout there were likely more people who had specific candidates they were excited to support," he said. "A person who's happy with what's happened in West Jordan and maybe complacent is less likely to vote."

With Holladay's campaign over, former City Council members David B. Newton and Brian D. Pitts will face off in November's general election. Newton garnered 1,204 votes Tuesday and Pitts received 953.

In Clearfield, Waggoner at 375 votes is 21 ballots short of making it through to the general election, but he has hope that the citywide canvass to log results of absentee and provisional ballots will put him back in the race.

Challenger Dan Phelps took the most votes with 525, while Mark Shepherd received 396.

Both men say struggles in the city were spelled out in the voting booths.

"We let a president sit for eight years, and this is a man that runs the country. He's got eight years to make a difference. Why would we treat that any different for the mayor of the city," said Shepherd, a real estate agent.

Phelps said, "If I didn't think I could do a better job, I wouldn't have run."

Holladay said he believes Newton's popularity was among people loyal to former Mayor Donna Evans, defeated by Holladay in the 2001 election. Newton and Pitts were both on the council under Evans, and while Newton was an Evans supporter, Pitts was often her opponent. Holladay speculates Newton and his supporters "want to get some of Donna's people back in."

"I don't know how they could be unhappy," he said. "We actually completed a lot of things Donna wanted to do."

But Newton believes his success came from two sources: residents unhappy with the current city government, and the help of his campaign volunteers.