On Monday, prospective officeholders across Utah made the plunge official, filing for off-year municipal elections that will conduct primaries on a new date this year: Sept. 11.
In the highest-profile chase, the field now is set to succeed outgoing Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson - and eight isn't enough. A ninth candidate, 29-year-old Quinn Cady McDonough, filed just before the deadline.
Candidates also flooded the Utah capital's three City Council contests. And voters will have new names to select from in a handful of mayoral races, including in Ogden, Clearfield, Mapleton and Eagle Mountain.
Council races dominate most ballots. In St. George, West Jordan and West Valley City, for instance, more than a dozen hopefuls are vying for council seats. And, in Kanab, at least three candidates who either opposed or warned against the southern Utah town's controversial passage of a natural-family resolution, are seeking to oust two incumbents.
Nine candidates, many who already have spent months debating, trekking door to door and courting mounds of cash, hope to replace Salt Lake City's two-term mayor.
Top-tier contenders include Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, City Councilman Dave Buhler, state legislator Ralph Becker and businessman Keith Christensen.
Becker and Wilson, the front-runner according to early polls, are Democrats, while Buhler is a Republican. Earlier this month, Christensen ditched the GOP to register as unaffiliated.
Even though the contest officially is nonpartisan, party plays a prominent role in the left-leaning capital, where voters have not elected a Republican mayor in more than 30 years.
A second tier of mayoral hopefuls includes surgeon J.P. Hughes, retired engineer Rainer Huck, consultant Robert Muscheck, embattled Centro Civico Mexicano Director John Renteria and McDonough.
Anderson, who had flirted with jumping into the race, now would have to run as a write-in, though he ruled out such a bid last week.
In Ogden, Mayor Matthew Godfrey is vying for a third term against legislator Neil Hansen, City Councilwoman Susan Van Hooser, Doyle Sexton and John Thompson.
In Eagle Mountain - a city with a tumultuous political history that stands to gain its 10th mayor in 11 years - three have filed for a two-year term. Former Mayor Brian Olsen resigned 10 months after being elected. Three days later he was charged with seven third-degree felony counts for misusing public funds. The current mayor, Don Richardson, was appointed to fill in until a mayor could be elected this November to finish Olsen's term.
Richard J. Culbertson, Wolfgang R. Franz and current Councilwoman Heather Jackson are vying for that spot.
Three City Council seats in Salt Lake City are up for grabs, and District 6 is guaranteed to see a new face since Buhler is leaving the post to run for mayor. Vying to replace him are corporate consultant Ellen Reddick, lawyer Roger McConÂkie, consultant William Huckins and J.T. Martin, owner of Emigration Market.
District 2 pits incumbent Van Turner against west-side activist Michael Clara in a rematch from 2003.
In District 4, incumbent Nancy Saxton bolted the mayor's chase to defend her seat. But she faces a fight. Luke Garrott, a political science professor at the University of Utah, Brian Doughty, an industrial-equipment salesman, businesswoman Carol Goode and factory worker Jack Gray have joined the fray.
djensen@sltrib.com
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* Tribune reporters Steve Gehrke, Donald W. Meyers, Rosemary Winters, Cathy McKitrick, Mark Havnes and Christopher Smart contributed to this report.
