Forget that he wasn't even running for anything. Forget that Massachusetts voters seemed to repudiate his leadership by voting for a Democrat for governor.

Romney won because Sen. George Allen of Virginia lost.

That's the assessment of Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, who spoke at the University of Utah this week as a guest of the U.'s Hinckley Institute of Politics.

Discussing the possible front-runners for the presidential race in 2008, Sabato said John McCain and Rudy Giuliani both have problems with the Fundamentalist Christian base of the Republican Party. McCain because he is seen as a maverick and Giuliani because he is pro-choice and pro-gay rights.

Allen was the potential GOP candidate who seemed to be most favored by the Christian base, said Sabato, until Allen self-destructed and lost his Senate race, knocking him out of the presidential picture.

That leaves Romney as the leading "faith-based" candidate, said Sabato, who, by the way, predicted the Democrats would pick up 29 House seats and six Senate seats, which they did.

Don't mess with the GOP: Utah Republican legislators are actually a pretty diverse group.

Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield is a former circus performer, Rep. Greg Hughes of Draper is a former boxer, Sen. Curtis Bramble of Provo wrestled for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and former Rep. Chad Bennion of Murray was a top-notch marathon runner.

Now we have Representative-elect Carl Wimmer of Riverton.

A group went to Las Vegas to cheer on Wimmer, a law enforcement officer who happens to be a world class weight lifter and was participating in a meet there.

All or nothing? Regarding my column item Wednesday about the Boy Scouts in the Millcreek area putting up American flags on Pioneer Day but not Veterans Day, there's more. One resident says she asked them to stop patronizing her place if they continued to place flags for Pioneer Day but not for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. She noted their flier states they put the flags up for every national holiday. Rather than including Martin Luther King Day to keep her business, they agreed to take her off their list.

Recycling project? Mary Feotis has an idea for all those campaign signs still littering the landscape.

She suggests those who had signs in their yards could turn them over and use them for, say, garage sale promotions, posting them in different locations around the neighborhood to direct traffic to their homes. They also could be used for birthday parties, weddings, etc.

That's one way, she says, to clear communities of nuisance campaign signs lingering after an election.

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