2 commissions GOP all the way

After eight years, the most Democratic of all Utah counties is back to an all-Republican County Commission.

In two tight races that weren't finally decided until very late in the ballot counting, Republican incumbent Mary Callaghan and newcomer Mark Shurtleff beat out Karen Crompton and Mike Reberg Tuesday for the two contested seats on the Salt Lake County Commission."I think people are looking to the Republican philosophy for management and growth," Callaghan said. "Our Republicans turned out for us."

Lucky for Callaghan that they did. The Democrats did an effective job of turning out the vote, and after trailing Crompton most of the night Callaghan pulled ahead of her opponent only when the last few precincts were counted, winning by just 2,785 votes out of 209,715 cast.

The final tally: Callaghan 50.68 percent, Crompton 49.32 percent, according to complete but unofficial results.

"At least it was greater than 1 percent," Callaghan said.

Callaghan is making a habit of white-knuckle victories. She beat challenger Wendy Smith in the GOP primary last June by the barest of margins - 0.4 percent - and only pulled ahead when the absentee ballots were counted.

Her margin against Crompton was enough to ensure victory even with 2,414 absentee ballots still outstanding. Callaghan won proportionately more votes in the southern parts of the county, which were the last precincts to report their results.

"She had a tough primary, as well as a tough election," Crompton said. "I admire her for being out there."

The scenario was similar in the Shurtleff/Reberg race. Reberg led through much of the night until Shurtleff surged ahead to win 51 to 46 percent.

The two candidates' camps were a study in contrasts. Reberg stood in his suite at the Airport Hilton looking at the television, quite clearly nervous, but also calm.

"I'm at peace," said Reberg, a veteran of several campaigns but a first-time candidate. "No one's going to believe this, but it's been easier for me to be a candidate."

Meanwhile, Shurtleff was glad-handing his way through the Doubletree Hotel ballroom, where the Republicans were gathered - smiling, laughing, interrupting conversations to start others.

"I told people I was just going to have fun tonight," he said. "They told me to get a suite, wait up there, then make an entrance, but I want to be down here with all these good people."

While Shurtleff termed the campaign "an overall good experience," he was glad to have done with it.

"How do you spell relief? O-V-E-R," he said.

While they all might hail from the same political party, some healing is going to be in order among the new commissioners.

Commission Chairman Brent Overson has had - and continues to have - serious differences with both Callaghan and Shurtleff. He supported Wendy Smith's candidacy, attacking Callaghan for flip-flopping on issues and making claims unsupported by the facts and has been decidedly chilly toward Shurtleff.

The reason: Until recently, Shurtleff was a deputy county attorney under Doug Short, Overson's nemesis. Overson has been afraid of bringing his enemy into his own camp.

"I can understand his concern, but we're done with all that," Shurtleff said, vowing to mend fences with Overson. "He wants me to prove that I'm not Doug, and I'm not."