Dems see signs of thaw in Utah County

Provo elected a mayor who once ran for state office as a Democrat.

Republican in-fighting erupted over a Provo City Council seat. Voters in a dozen Utah County cities fired incumbent mayors or council members -- or both.

Could the Democratic freeze in Utah County be thawing just a bit?

Richard Davis, chairman of the Utah County Democratic Party, thinks so.

But his counterpart, Utah County Republican Chairman Taylor Oldroyd, points to a BYU survey released this month that showed Provo residents placed Democrats at the very bottom of the power-wielding pile -- below real estate agents and developers, not to mention Republicans.

This year's municipal races were all nonpartisan, but Davis saw some promising signs for next year's legislative election. The Republican bastion has not elected a Democrat on any partisan ticket since U.S. Rep. Bill Orton won his third, and final, term in 1994.

John Curtis beat state Rep. Steve Clark, a Republican, to win the open Provo mayor's seat. Curtis is now a registered Republican, but he ran for the state Senate in 2000 on the Democratic ticket and served as the Utah County Democratic Party chairman in 2002. Clark played up Curtis' Democratic credentials in the campaign, but it did not deter voters.

"That may suggest that the pejorative nature of that label [Democrat] isn't as strong as Republicans might think it is," Davis says.

Davis also noticed an "anti-incumbent"

trend as voters ousted mayors in American Fork, Highland, Lehi, Mapleton and Payson. A number of city council members also got the boot.

"People are unhappy. Obviously, that works to our benefit because we have new, fresh people," Davis says. "We need to restore a two-party system."

Progress for Democrats in one of the nation's most conservative counties is measured in baby steps. In 2008, the Democratic candidates scored 33 percent of the votes countywide, up from 22 percent in 2006, Davis notes.

Next year, he's watching state House districts in Spanish Fork, Orem and Provo where Democrats were able to score at least 40 percent of the vote in 2008.

Another city race in Provo this year pointed to some signs of distress in the Utah County GOP, Davis says. Oldroyd, the county boss, worked to oust fellow Republican Cindy Richards. She lost her seat to newcomer Sterling Beck. The party's executive committee has scheduled a hearing on Oldroyd's conduct.

"It was interesting to watch the Republicans kind of destroy each other," Davis says. "That was not a good sign for the Republicans, to be engaging in this kind of internal squabbling." Oldroyd says his involvement in the nonpartisan race, was as a Provo resident, not a party official. His work "had nothing to do with the [Republican] party," he says.

As for signs of a Democratic awakening in 2010? Oldroyd doesn't see it.

"Democrats couldn't hang on to Virginia or New Jersey," in governors' races this year, he says. "I don't think they are going to be picking up anything in Utah County."

rwinters@sltrib.com