But with only two seats that Democrats picked up Tuesday in the 75-member House and no gains in the Senate, it means Republicans still have two-thirds majorities in both bodies.

Democrats lost a long-held eastern Utah Senate seat and picked up one in eastern Salt Lake County. That wash means Democrats are stuck at just eight seats in the 29-member Senate.

Huntsman set a new statewide landslide record Tuesday with 77.73 percent of the vote. That record had been held by former GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt, who won his first re-election in 1996 with 74.3 percent of the vote. With equally huge favorable ratings, the question for Huntsman now is how he will spend some of that political capital. He may well need it if he is to take on the GOP-controlled Legislature in 2009 over ethics reform — an issue that leading Republican legislators have not been willing to take on in the past.

Huntsman said he's excited about what's ahead. His top priorities:

• The economy: "I think within three years we can raise teacher pay to the national average, something that many thought impossible a few years ago."

• Health care reform: "Over four years I think we can be close to getting (health insurance) coverage for all Utahns."

• Energy: "We can build renewable energy and natural gas corridors down the middle of the state," creating jobs along the way.

Huntsman said he hopes he can build "coalitions" with willing legislators from both political parties to achieve what he believes must be done. "Not running again (for governor) means no political game-playing — but doing what is right for all Utahns," he said.

But as strong as Huntsman, a Republican, was on Tuesday, Democrat Matheson was the flip-side of the coin.

Matheson, son of the popular, late Democratic Gov. Scott M. Matheson, received more than 50 percent of the GOP vote in his 2nd District, according to exit polls conducted by the Brigham Young University political science department. Clearly, GOP challenger Bill Dew, who put more than half a million dollars of his own money into the race, failed to keep his political base. Matheson beat Dew, 63-35 percent.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com