Utah likely to see few close races on Election Day

Less than two weeks until the 2008 general election, and what do we know?

Here are a few observations:

• The presidential and major state and federal races seem to have settled down in Utah.

John McCain should win here, just as every other GOP presidential candidate has since 1968.

• While Republicans dumped 10-year incumbent U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon in the June party primary — which certainly has to be considered an upset — that winner, Jason Chaffetz, seems to be well on the way to the U.S. House in the 3rd District.

• And incumbents in other top races are doing well, too. GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is way ahead of Democratic challenger Bob Springmeyer, both in campaign cash and in the polls. Likewise for Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson in the 2nd District and Republican Rob Bishop in the 1st District.

• GOP Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has taken some hits from Jean Welch Hill, his Democratic challenger. But Shurtleff looks like he'll survive for a third, four-year term.

• I don't know what will happen in the state treasurer's race. Republican Richard Ellis has been muddied in a bitter intraparty challenge that saw former state Rep. Mark Walker, R-Sandy, accused of bribery. That issue still simmers. But whether Democrat Dick Clark can win remains to be seen.

• In Salt Lake County, Mayor Peter Corroon, a Democrat, seems safe. The real question here is whether Democrats can win one more seat on the County Council to take over the majority. If so, Democrats would have political control of Utah's largest county for the first time in more than a dozen years — when former Democratic county commissioners Jim Bradley and Randy Horiuchi (now County Council members) ruled the then-three-member commission form of government.

• Some of the very interesting political battles this year are in the Legislature — a place many Utahns don't pay much attention to.

Recent polls show that most Utahns can't name either their Utah House or Senate member.

But while the governor has a lot of say in state government — he signs or vetoes budgets and around 300 new bills passed each year by lawmakers — the Legislature is still a powerful, if misunderstood, entity.

Democrats have been trying to play up ethical problems in the 104-member Legislature. So far, the most serious complaints have been against GOP lawmakers, although Democrats are not immune to ethical lapses of their own.