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Suggesting his Republican status is a stigma and pronouncing Utah's GOP "scary," Keith Christensen is jettisoning his Republican label and abandoning the state's predominant party in a bid to win the Salt Lake City mayor's seat.
Well aware of the capital's progressive voting core - a Republican hasn't been elected mayor in more than 30 years - Christensen has changed his status to unaffiliated.
"I'm sick and tired of being labeled as a Republican. I've always been fiercely independent," Christensen said before unleashing a litany of gripes about the Grand Old Party. "They're more concerned about platforms and pandering to the religious right than they are real Americans. And I can't endorse that."
Christensen went on to rail against President Bush's management of the Iraq war, calling it "despicable" and "a complete train wreck." He said he was "furious" with both major parties for their failure to enact a new energy policy and immigration reform.
Political observers say Christensen's move is a desperate attempt to court Democrats in left-leaning Salt Lake City - some tag it a "Mitt Romney flip-flop" - but acknowledge it could quake the crowded field as the weeks tick closer to the Sept. 11 primary.
Christensen, who has been leading in fundraising but lagging in the polls, says even though the race officially is nonpartisan, it seems to be "the most fiercely partisan race in the state." He says he registered as a Republican years ago because of the party's stance toward business, but always has regarded himself as independent.
On the campaign trail "people won't say, 'Who are you?' They'll say, 'What are you?' " Christensen complained. "The Republican label is a barrier to looking at who I really am. Like most voters in Salt Lake City, I'm fiscally conservative but socially progressive."
Democrat Jenny Wilson, the front-runner in early polls, suggested the "very educated" left-leaning electorate will see through the move.
"I, as a voter, would be suspicious," she said Saturday.
Wilson pointed to Christensen's former positions as a city councilman that included favoring cross-deputizing police officers to enforce immigration rules and opposing a nondiscrimination ordinance, which Christensen now endorses.
"That is ultimately what the Salt Lake City voter will see," Wilson said.
Neither Democrat Ralph Becker nor Republican Dave Buhler, the other major contenders in the mayor's chase, could be reached Saturday for comment.
Christensen, who has amassed more than a half-million dollars thus far, frequently points to his diverse endorsements, which range from former Sen. Jake Garn to exiting Mayor Rocky Anderson.
Anderson, who opted against seeking a third term, says people have been misled by "the references in the media to Keith as a Republican."
"I've known Keith a long time and never have thought of him as someone who takes a partisan view of issues," the mayor said. "He has an extremely progressive attitude that, once people get to know him, would appeal to most Democrats."
Even so, Christensen's other big move is the hiring of Jeff Hartley, the recently ousted executive director of the state GOP, as a consultant. Hartley also works for a group pushing school vouchers, which Christensen opposes.
"The politicos - all the pundits can say what they will" - about hiring Hartley, Christensen said. "I'm not worried about that."
For his part, Hartley says stumping for vouchers and Christensen are "separate parts of my life."
"My goal is to help good people and good causes."
But even as he has hired the party's former leader, Christensen took some parting shots at the GOP.
"There is a faction in the state's Republican Party that is scary," he said. "And it doesn't accurately reflect the values of Utah."
Judging where the candidates stand with Salt Lake City voters is difficult since the last published poll was in early April. In that Deseret Morning News-KSL survey, however, Christensen finished fifth - behind Wilson, Buhler, Becker and Councilwoman Nancy Saxton, who has since dropped out.
Quin Monson, assistant director at Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, says Christensen needed to do something to shake things up.
"This is as good as any," he said. "This is a chance for him to get some attention from people who are paying a lot more attention to Ralph Becker or Jenny Wilson, and he may get a second look from Rocky Anderson folks who weren't taking him seriously because he was a Republican."
At the same time, Monson says the switch also should help Buhler, who suddenly has a corner on the GOP voting bloc.
Salt Lake County Democratic Chairman Christian Burridge says it was a "tactical error" for Christensen to tell anybody he was a Republican from the outset.
"If he was truly an independent, he should have said so," Burridge explained. "It almost looks to me like one of those Mitt Romney flip-flops. He's trying to say what people want to hear so he can get elected."
Christensen rejects the notion of political opportunism and insists his independence dates back to his tenure on the City Council.
Still, Kirk Jowers, director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, notes New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's recent switch from Republican to independent "may have made the timing as right as possible."
But, to make a difference, Christensen should have gone all the way, Jowers says, and become a Democrat.
"This is an acknowledgement by Mr. Christensen that he cannot be Rocky's guy and win as a Republican. And he can't be a Republican and be Rocky's guy. Now he tries to cut the baby in half."
"In the end," Jowers says, "it will help only on the margins, and it won't be enough."
The primary election for the Salt Lake City mayor's race is Sept 11. The top two vote-getters then will square off in the Nov. 6 general election. The declared field includes:
* Ralph Becker, House minority leader
* Dave Buhler, city councilman
* Keith Christensen, former city councilman
* Rainer Huck, retired engineer
* J.P. Hughes, surgeon
* Robert Muscheck, consultant
* John Renteria, Centro Civico Mexicano director
* Jenny Wilson, Salt Lake County councilwoman
Note: All but Christensen and Renteria have filed for the race.