Although four City Council seats are up for a vote Nov. 6, at-large incumbents Linda Martinez-Saville and Steve Fairbanks are running unopposed. And councilmen Dennis Tenney and Chris McCandless didn't have to worry about a primary, each facing only one challenger.

It's only the second time in 27 years that City Recorder Dianne Aubrey can remember not having enough candidates to hold a single primary election, she said. This year, Sandy and Taylorsville were the only two of the state's 10 largest cities to skip that Sept. 11 vote.

Martinez-Saville, a four-term council member, is relieved she won't have to launch an expensive campaign - but she's surprised.

"When something like this happens, you're just in shock because you're so used to having six or seven people run against you" for an at-large seat, said Martinez-Saville, who is running for her fifth term. "I still can't believe it."

She hopes she's unchallenged because residents are happy with her job performance. Tenney and McCandless both chocked up the low candidate numbers to general contentment in Sandy.

"It's an indication of how well the city is run," McCandless said. "People feel pretty comfortable with what we've done and where we're headed."

But their opponents, Reed Haslam and David Kingsbury, said there's simply a lack of interest in local elections, and the public debate over the soccer stadium has closed.

"I just think that most citizens don't focus on municipal races," Haslam said. "They tend to focus on county, state and national races."

This election's low profile sharply contrasts with Sandy's last election in 2005, when community activists forced a referendum on whether a gravel pit should become home to a Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers. The ballot initiative failed, but narrowly.

In that election, mayoral contender Gary Forbush - who opposed the gravel pit development - lost by a similar 6 percent margin to three-term Mayor Tom Dolan, now in his fourth term. In the 2005 primary, Councilman Bryant Anderson faced two challengers, four people ran for an open at-large seat, and Dolan and Forbush trumped a third candidate vying for mayor.

Forbush, who surprised observers by even coming close to ousting the popular Dolan, has his own explanation for Sandy's tepid candidate turnout this year.

"The incumbents are going to say it's because they're doing a great job. It's not," Forbush said. "It's because people are so pessimistic about effecting change in Sandy. Everything is a done deal."

Forbush said it's daunting - and expensive - for residents to challenge incumbents who have the advantage of name recognition and political connections.

"For me, the City Council virtually votes like a bloc - and they vote like a Tom Dolan bloc," Forbush said. "That's the danger that you have when you have a mayor who's been in there too long and [who has] consolidated power."

Still, Matthew Burbank, chair of the University of Utah's Political Science Department, said it's not uncommon for big cities to have few candidates.

"Part of it has to do with the nature of incumbents. If incumbents are there, and they're considered popular, that greatly reduces the incentive for people wanting to run," he said. "The chances of being successful are small."

The RSL stadium deal could have had a bigger impact on the election, he said, if the grass-roots group that sought to overturn a $35 million public subsidy for the stadium had gathered enough signatures to get a referendum on the ballot. But that effort failed this spring.

Even though the election has not generated enough excitement to fill out the City Council races, Haslam predicted school issues will draw people to Sandy's polling booths next month. Voters will have a say in whether to overturn private school vouchers and whether to break away from the Jordan School District.

"We might have a poor turnout for candidates," Haslam said, "but we're going to have a huge turnout of voters."

rwinters@sltrib.com