Salt Lake County GOP Chairman James Evans, a former Republican state senator from Salt Lake City, warns Becker and state Democratic leaders that there could be "far reaching implications" if the Democratic Party comes into the race big-time and pounds Buhler.

What Evans is really saying is that the super-Republican majority in the Utah Legislature could take some action against the minority party. That action could be changing state law to make all municipal elections partisan.

And since Utah is overwhelmingly Republican, any closet Democrats would have little chance to win city council or mayor's seats in most of the state's 242 municipalities.

There is already a move in the Legislature to make State School Board candidates run under party labels. That is mainly retribution for a number of board members refusing to implement a flawed private school voucher system this summer. Ultimately, the Utah Supreme Court backed the school board, and the voucher issue will be settled in a Nov. 6 referendum.

The school board's audacity in not following the Legislature's demands, however, could result in the politicalization of board elections, which are now nonpartisan.

Let the Utah Democratic Party mess with the Salt Lake City mayor's race, and the same could happen there, GOP leaders seem to be saying.

Just another example of the arrogance of Republican power in Utah.

And we'll see if Democratic Party leaders take the warning to heart or go ahead with helping Becker.

In any case, Buhler has an uphill battle ahead of him. Salt Lakers haven't elected a Republican mayor in 36 years, and the city votes 2-to-1 Democratic nowadays.

Both Becker and Buhler would make good mayors, I believe. And partisan politics will play a role in this election, whether party labels are officially recognized or not.

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Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com.