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Salt Lake County voters are satisfied with the way Mayor Ben Adams is running county government, giving him a commanding lead in unofficial returns early Wednesday.
And voters may give the Democratic mayor a Democratic-led council to work with in a second term.
McAdams built a large lead with 62 percent of the vote over Republican challenger Dave Robinson's 38 percent.
"These early numbers are right along the lines of what we saw in our polling," McAdams said late Tuesday. "We've been talking to voters for months and experienced a strong show of support on the doorsteps and in the communities."
Democrats' hopes of seizing control of the County Council — where Republicans hold a 5-4 edge — were boosted by unofficial returns that gave challenger Catherine Kanter a slim lead over one-term incumbent Richard Snelgrove for a six-year at-large seat. Kanter had 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent for Snelgrove.
Republican Max Burdick also was encountering more resistance than expected in District 6, where Democratic challenger Abigail Wright had 45 percent to 55 percent for the GOP incumbent.
Two other council races weren't contested seriously. Democrat Sam Granato was unopposed in District 4, while GOP veteran Michael Jensen faced only write-in candidate Jeff White in District 2.
The 41-year-old McAdams campaigned on his record as a bridge builder who brought people together to resolve issues that festered for years.
Most visible among those were ongoing efforts to reform the criminal-justice system and help a growing population of homeless people.
McAdams also cited consolidation of the Salt Lake Valley's 911 emergency dispatch systems and the end of decades of local government boundary disputes, resulting, come Jan. 1, in creation of Millcreek City and five metro townships.
In addition, he expressed pride in helping to lead the Mountain Accord process which brought together a couple of dozen groups interested in the central Wasatch Mountains to develop a "blueprint" for addressing environmental, recreational, economic and transportation issues.
Robinson, 48, a businessman best known for representing private landowners whose interests in developing canyon property has been frustrated by Salt Lake City's watershed-protection rules, used the Mountain Accord process to attack McAdams.
He alleged the effort lacked transparency, violating Utah's open-meetings law, and was a way for McAdams' supporters to get consulting contracts without going to bid.
McAdams rejected those charges as baseless, and Mountain Accord coordinator Laynee Jones produced documents showing that larger contracts went out to bid, while she was allowed to award smaller ones as subcontracts to her main contract.
A McAdams victory marks the fourth consecutive term in which the Democrats have controlled the county mayor's office. Peter Corroon served two terms before McAdams, who previously was a state senator and a Salt Lake City official.
Snelgrove, 61, a longtime Republican activist who has served one term on the council, campaigned on his record as a fiscal conservative dedicated to transparency in government.
He faced a tough challenger in Kanter, 49, an attorney who got involved at the grass-roots level on planning and zoning issues and amassed $234,000 for her campaign. Snelgrove raised $83,000.
She attacked as shortsighted his decision to vote against extending an expiring tax for jail construction and to use its $9.4 million in annual revenue for criminal-justice reform efforts.
Snelgrove said he was not opposed to the goals of the reforms but argued the public was "hoodwinked" by the extension, which he believed should have gone up for a public vote.
Parks bond up
There soon may be more places to play in Salt Lake County.
In unofficial returns early Wednesday, county voters favored Proposition A — 56 percent to 44 percent — which would authorize the county to issue bonds worth $90 million for parks and recreation projects — $59 million for new projects, $31 million for upgrades to existing facilities and programs.
The vote extends an expiring bond for parks and recreation projects. It means the owner of a $295,000 home (the county average) would continue paying $18.18 a year to pay off the bond, while a business of the same value would pay $33.06.