2010 tough year for Utah politicians

SALT LAKE CITY — What would normally be a quiet off year in Utah politics turned surprisingly tough for some of the state's elected leaders, even ending some careers.

And Utah was no different than much of the rest of the country, where the emergence of the tea party movement shook up the establishment and set a new conservative course.

Even in the GOP-dominated state, debate about immigration and other controversial issues including the role of the federal government have taken a decidedly sharp turn to the right.

Most telling of the change may be the new faces representing Utah. Mike Lee is replacing Bob Bennett in the Senate after 18 years and will be the nation's youngest senator. Utah House Speaker-elect Becky Lockhart is the first woman to hold the powerful position.

But some familiar names are staying put. Utah's only Democrat in Congress, Rep. Jim Matheson, defied the anti-incumbent, anti-Democrat sentiment of voters to win a sixth term.

And Gov. Gary Herbert, who took over as governor in August 2009 after former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. resigned to become U.S. ambassador to China, won two more years in office despite a tough challenge.

Huntsman continues to be seen as a future presidential candidate, while Mitt Romney, the leader of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is expected to run again in 2012.

Here's a list of the top 10 political stories for 2010:

1. Sen. Bob Bennett loses re-election bid. Bennett failed to win his party's nomination for a fourth term at May's state GOP convention, one of the first elected officials ousted nationwide by the anti-incumbent fervor stoked by the tea party movement. Even backing from one of the more popular politicians in Utah ever, Mitt Romney, couldn't stop delegates from cheering Bennett's defeat.

2. Senate and House majority leaders resign. Just before the 2010 Legislature began, then-Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, a Republican from Syracuse, quit after being pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence. In the last hours of the session, former House Majority Leader Kevin Garn tearfully acknowledged a years-old, nude hot-tubbing incident involving a teenaged girl. Garn also left the Legislature.