2 commissioners keep jobs

Both incumbent Republicans kept their jobs as county commissioners for a second term each in Utah County.

Voters spoke loudly in favor of Jerry Grover for Seat A and David Gardner for Seat B with balloting that gave each of them about 75 percent of the vote.In complete but unofficial results tallied in the wee hours Wednesday morning, Grover and Gardner both held a healthy 3-to-1 vote majority for most of the night over Democratic opponents Daniel Grey and Nancy Jane Woodside.

Gardner said he felt good about the campaign and about what the commission has done. He said Utah County residents can rest assured that the commission will continue to take care of business.

"We won, convincingly," he said.

A nearby supporter appeared to agree. "A walkaway, that's what it is," he said. "An absolute walkaway."

Gardner said if he could change anything it would have been to avoid negativism in the campaign.

"It would have been my preference to not have the campaign be so negative. There was a lot attributed to me that just wasn't true. I think she (Woodside) was trying to do what she thought she had to do to win."

Woodside said the voter turnout worked against her.

"If 29 or 30 percent voter turnout is accurate, then the people who didn't vote re-elected the commission," she said, speaking from the Comfort Inn where she and her supporters watched the results come in.

"If people don't vote, then they can't complain. Everywhere I went I heard complaints but that doesn't seem to translate into votes to make change."

Woodside said she regrets the situation that erupted with Intermountain Health Care's Celebration of Health Foundation. "A headline like `IHC backs away from candidate,' does some damage," she said.

Woodside canceled a fund-raiser that was to benefit her campaign and an IHC foundation after the foundation declined Woodside's offer to share the profits because it would threaten its nonprofit status to accept the candidate's money.

"A Democrat in this county has to have Republican support," Woodside said. "I think my whole campaign was a novelty. I think I made the County Commission and Gardner nervous."

Challenger Daniel Grey, who conceded to Jerry Grover before 11 p.m., said he doesn't know if he'll plunge into politics again.

"I was hoping for a 60-40 split. That would have shown I was making a difference," Grey said.

"With it being worse than 70-30, it almost appears that I didn't."

Grover said he felt the commission is doing a pretty decent job and people recognize that.

"What we're doing doesn't always make the papers but we aren't doing a lot wrong," he said. "I don't know that I expected 75 percent of the vote. My race was definitely the low-key race.

"This county is very Republican with conservative principles obviously," he said. "At least the Republicans seem to be satisfied."