From Deseret News archives:

Utah a bit less Republican

S.L. County voters boot Curtis, give Demos control of council, but Huntsman wins

Published: Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008 10:38 a.m. MST
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Democrat Barack Obama is president, but Utah remains Republican country — although maybe a bit less so in Salt Lake County, with GOP Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis losing his seat and Democrats winning control of the County Council.

Complete, but unofficial, tallies show that by 63-34 percent Utahns gave their five Electoral College votes to John McCain, the Republican Party presidential candidate who lost handily to Obama across the nation.

Still, GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. got a record re-election win, 78-20 percent, over Democrat Bob Springmeyer. U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, goes back to Congress in his 1st Congressional District, joined by Jason Chaffetz, a Republican newcomer from the 3rd Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, as expected, remains the lone Democrat in the Utah delegation with a big re-election victory in the 2nd Congressional District.

In other statewide races Republicans swept into office: Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who left a hospital after being treated for a staph infection in his leg to vote Tuesday, won a third four-year term; Auditor Auston Johnson won re-election; and current chief deputy treasurer Richard Ellis survived a nasty GOP-primary scandal to win his retiring boss's job.

Story continues below
But while state Democrats can only cheer Obama, they showed gains in Salt Lake County and in the state Legislature. Indeed, with 34 percent of the vote in Utah, Obama ran much better than the 26 percent that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry received here just four years ago. (Obama narrowly lost in Salt Lake County.)

Tuesday night at the Democrats' party in a downtown Salt Lake hotel, one may not have known that they lost most of the top races in the state this year — electing Obama as president and making gains in Salt Lake County was enough to bring smiles and cheers. Indeed, Utah Democrats are used to taking baby steps in their election victories.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon won an impressive re-election victory. Salt Lake County Councilman Randy Horiuchi also won re-election on Corroon's coattails. (Horiuchi was running newspaper ads with Corroon endorsements — and a picture of Corroon, not Horiuchi.) And Democrat Jani Iwamoto unseated GOP incumbent councilman Mark Crockett in District 6 to give Democrats a 5-4 majority on the council. Democrats control county government for the first time in more than a decade.

Utah Democratic Party leaders and their legislators hoped this could be a year like 1986, when Democrats doubled the number of party members in the state House. Democrats were further down then, and jumped further ahead than they did Tuesday.

Recent comments

Well, this is the thing..as a Mormon in Western Australia, I cannot...

Roy Webb | Nov. 6, 2008 at 11:29 p.m.

Romney would have won most of the states McCain won and so would have...

Re: Huckabee what??? | Nov. 5, 2008 at 10:02 p.m.

Please......don't make me laugh. Huckabee is joke....plus he is an...

Huckabee? | Nov. 5, 2008 at 6:48 p.m.

Image

Barack Obama supporters celebrate election results at the Democratic State Party gathering at the Radisson Hotel in Salt Lake City on Tuesday night.

previousnext

Latest comments

Gifts for gamers

There are some games I love not on your list. Arkham Asylum for one.

Daughter: Mitchell fed me my pet

Our parents made my brothers help kill and clean our rabbits before we ate...

Why would you keep it open? I would understand if there was a lot of amazing...

The government will run our health care well? Read Reader's Digest, November...

BCS stable at top, Y. up to 14

TCU stomped on the MWC so they are naturally ready to crush Florida, Alabama...

Jazz win 6th in 7 games

could you understand Dave Locke any more than my mom does and she is not even...

Notre Dame fires Weis

Attending the ND/BYU game 3 years ago in south bend, a couple of things stuck...

I missed the game, actually i heard a little bit of Locke on the radio (man...

Hall's pain reflects self-betrayal

quotes were good: Article was dumb and unnecessary.

Understanding translation process

I believe the art depicting Joseph looking at the plates may possibly be...

Advertisements