In fact, the mayor's office is his right now - literally. Acting Mayor Alan Dayton has cleared out incumbent Nancy Workman's office so Corroon can begin working on the transition.

The Democratic newcomer - a one-time long shot who vaulted to the lead after the seemingly invincible Workman became embroiled in scandal - declared victory Wednesday morning after a bizarre race highlighted by a late push from Republican replacement Ellis Ivory.

"Today, we begin the course for a better tomorrow, and I am proud to be the captain of that ship," Corroon said in a victory speech, promising a "fresh start" for a transgression-tainted government.

"I am deeply humbled and grateful that the citizens of Salt Lake County have chosen me to be their second county mayor and, in return, I am making them a solemn vow: I will lead this county with dignity and respect," said a visibly exhausted Corroon, who campaigned for the better part of the year right up until the last votes were cast Tuesday.

He went to bed Wednesday just before 1 a.m. with a narrow lead over Ivory.

Ivory, who jumped into the race four weeks before Election Day, conceded the race early Wednesday.

"It's a loss, but I'm still alive and I've got a good life," Ivory said. "There were tough elements there that we were unable to overcome."

The founder of Utah's largest home-building company, Ivory poured nearly a half-million dollars of his own fortune into his last-minute effort, refusing contributions as part of his campaign promises. But he didn't regret the investment.

"I can still afford lunch," he joked.

Dayton is a rising Republican star who took over for Workman after she was charged with two felonies and put on paid leave.

Corroon officially starts his four-year term in January.

Dayton also said he would consider offering Corroon a stipend of $3,000 to $5,000 a month during the transition. The acting mayor made the same offer to all candidates before the election.

"We just want to make [the transition] pretty smooth and pretty slick," Dayton said, adding that Corroon would be welcome to give input into policy decisions starting now.

In fact, Dayton is preparing to present the mayor's 2005 budget to the County Council on Tuesday and has invited Corroon to share his thoughts on the spending plan.

For his part, Corroon said he would be interested in keeping Dayton on his staff. Dayton said he was "flattered" and would listen to an offer but it wasn't in his current plans.

The mayor-elect often pledged during his campaign to run a "nonpartisan" administration and not ask his staffers their political affiliation. He reaffirmed that philosophy Wednesday, vowing to reach out to voters who didn't cast ballots for him.

"We must make the collective decision to heal the wounds of the past and anticipate future triumphs," Corroon said.

Some of the county's past is now history. Workman's name was removed from a large sign on the mayor's office wall and stickers she had placed on county facilities also are being scraped off.

As returns trickled in late Tuesday, it was unclear who would take the mayor's seat.

Corroon led throughout the night - albeit by slim margins. In the end, Corroon outpaced Ivory by more than 20,000 votes, or 6.4 percentage points, and came close to earning an outright majority with 49.1 percent of the vote - despite Merrill Cook's presence as a viable third candidate on the ballot.

Those figures are based on unofficial returns and do not include some absentee and provisional ballots.

Results from the Utah Colleges Exit Poll show Corroon snared 90 percent of the Democratic vote, more than half of the independents and 17 percent of the GOP. Ivory captured 77 percent of the Republican vote, 28 percent of the independents and 7 percent of the Democrats.

Interestingly, Cook, a former Republican congressman, took only 5 percent of the GOP vote.

Corroon, who is Catholic, wooed 30 percent of the Mormon vote while Ivory, an LDS stake president, took 64 percent. Corroon fared better with women than men, while Ivory's support was split evenly between genders.

tburr@sltrib.com

What voters are saying

Voters agree that parties should be able to replace a candidate on the ballot for several reasons, according to exit polls from this week's election.

The question was posed in the wake of the controversy over replacing incumbent Nancy Workman on the Salt Lake County mayor's ballot. Out of seven options, the Utah Colleges Exit Poll showed voters don't agree that a political party should be able to replace a candidate if the party finds a better challenger. But they do favor changing candidates if the party's nominee is physically ill, mentally ill, accused of a crime, moves, drops out of the race or dies.

"It sure is curious to me," said Quin Monson, assistant director of the Brigham Young University Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

Monson noted that voters may have equated the question with Workman but voters clearly said parties should not be able to change the nominee "willy-nilly" if a better candidate is found.

- Thomas Burr