GOP has held legislative majority since mid-'70s

While Utah Democrats hope to gain seats in both the Utah House and Senate this year, a new poll for the Deseret News and KSL-TV shows it will be an uphill struggle — by far most Utahns plan on voting Republican in their legislative contests.

Pollster Dan Jones & Associates also finds that most Utahns get most of their legislative candidate information from traditional media sources — newspaper, radio and TV news reports.

There is almost no chance that Democrats could win control of either legislative body. Republicans have been in the majority since the mid-1970s.

But state Democratic Party leaders recently told the News that they could pick up six House seats and a couple of Senate seats, enough in either body to break the Republicans' two-thirds, veto-proof majorities.

"We could stop bad constitutional amendments and (gubernatorial) veto overrides," state party executive director Todd Taylor said during an interview at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

But GOP leaders say while they may be playing defense in some races, they also have opportunities to pick up some seats. Part of the problem for Republicans in the Senate is that out of 15 races this year, there are only three Democratic seats up for election — so the numbers are against the Republicans in defending their incumbents.

The new Jones survey finds that 59 percent of Utahns say they would vote for the GOP Senate candidate in their area if the election were today; only 25 percent said they'd vote for the Democrat.

Jones found that 57 percent of Utahns said they would vote for the Republican in their House race; only 28 percent said they would vote for the Democrat.

Overall, those are hard numbers to overcome for Democrats.

But there are Democratic bright spots in several individual constants.

Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, is clearly fighting for his political life. A survey last March in his District 10 found that 67 percent of the residents did not want to re-elect him this year. Buttars faces Democrat John Rendell.

Buttars has been a controversial legislator for some time. In the 2008 Legislature he referred to a school board bill as a dark, ugly baby, leading some to say the comments were racist.