While the Republican stranglehold on Utah politics solidified, Democratic faithful clung to the two politicians for light at the end of the tunnel. They were dynamic, moderate to liberal on social issues, and Mormon. And they became the de facto models for political success in Utah's beleaguered minority party.

But the underpinnings of 20 years of Democratic Party conventional wisdom may be crumbling. No longer must Utah Democrats running for office claim membership in the state's dominant religion. But being conservative obviously still helps.

Wilson and Owens have been replaced by U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon. And while it's still too early to say a trend is in the making, the congressman and county executive are being cast as Utah Democrats' future: fiscally and socially conservative, predictable, low-key and generally inoffensive.

"It makes sense if you are a Democrat in a state that's so overwhelmingly Republican to try to lay low, govern effectively and make a better reputation for your party," says Kelly Patterson, director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. "That's a good long-term strategy."

Matheson is the relative elder statesman in Utah's 2nd Congressional District. Besides Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, Matheson is the most prominent Democratic officeholder in the state. And his style couldn't be more different from the lightning-rod Anderson. After three terms in office, the lone Democrat in Utah's congressional delegation is a heavily favored incumbent in the 2006 race. He hasn't given his opponent, Republican state legislator LaVar Christensen, much to pick at.

The son of the state's late, beloved governor, Scott Matheson, the congressman insists he is not deliberately moderating his views to appeal to conservatives. He is simply being true to his Utah roots. A member of the Blue Dog Democrats, a group of fiscally conservative lawmakers, he voted for President Bush's budget, tax cuts and Medicare drug benefit and plan to send troops to Iraq. Matheson voted for legislation that would limit partial-birth abortion and amend the U.S. Constitution to block same-sex marriage. He continually fights efforts to resume nuclear testing in Nevada and dump radioactive waste in Utah.

Matheson rejects partisan labels. The word Democrat usually does not appear in his news releases or campaign literature.

"My dad said trust the voters, they know what they're doing," Matheson says. "This isn't some calculated effort on my part. You've got to be who you are. Voters are smart enough to see through somebody who's trying to be somebody they're not."

Corroon also brushes off pundits' and opponents' attempts to pigeonhole him.

The first-term county mayor was ushered into office two years ago when the county was mired in lingering scandals of Republican former Mayor Nancy Workman's administration. A low-key, almost shy politician, Corroon flew under the political radar for much of his first year in office, working as a nonpartisan, nuts-and-bolts county executive focused on running county government.

But his recent pointed questions about Real Salt Lake's financial prospectus and refusal to put county taxpayers on the line to build the professional soccer team's stadium have thrown him in the spotlight. Like Matheson, he is distinguishing himself as a fiscal conservative.

"It's kind of taking a play from the Jim Matheson playbook," says Quin Monson, assistant director of the BYU center. Monson says Democrats such as Corroon must find ways to be fiscally conservative to survive in Utah.

Corroon says it's not a political strategy, but rather his job definition.

"Most of what we do in Salt Lake County government is not overly political," Corroon says. "People just appreciate someone who's in there and runs an efficient government. I'm not an idealogue."

Matheson and Corroon are uncomfortable with any discussion of their religion. Matheson's family ancestry is Mormon. Corroon is Catholic. Matheson has two young sons. Corroon is a father of three.

Patterson says both Matheson and Corroon have jumped the first hurdle for Utah Democrats: getting in office in the first place. Other Democrats can try to build on that foundation.

"You have to have officeholders to be able to compete and develop a reputation," Patterson says. "If you're not in office long, you can't build anything."

There have been other successful Utah Democrats: former Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, Salt Lake County Commissioners-turned-Councilmen Jim Bradley and Randy Horiuchi, and former Attorneys General Paul Van Dam and Jan Graham among them. But Democrats are starting to think legacy again.

"Survival is the essence of politics," says Wilson, one of the Democratic Party's icons.

Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Holland Jr. recruited both Corroon and Matheson to persuade individual Democratic candidates to run for office this year. "It was that kind of leadership we needed," Holland says.

Republican Party Chairman Joe Cannon gives neither Matheson nor Corroon much credit for their initial election to office. Both, Cannon says, faced marginal candidates in "anomalous circumstances." In Corroon's case, Workman only belatedly dropped out of the race and Republican Ellis Ivory didn't have enough time to establish a strong campaign, Cannon says.

"I don't know if I'd dignify it by calling it a model yet," Cannon says. Still, "whatever accounts for the initial election of either of these guys," both are canny politicians who have learned quickly to appeal to Utah voters.

Whether Democratic faithful will build on the Matheson-Corroon model remains to be seen. Matheson's conservative stances on traditional liberal issues have alienated many core party members. Gay delegates to the state convention turned their backs on him two years ago. And Matheson's recent alliance with Republican Sen. Bob Bennett on a wilderness plan for southern Utah and a vote to change definitions in the Endangered Species Act have rubbed many Democrats the wrong way.

Wilson says party faithful need to "lighten up."

"There's always grumbling, muttering in the ranks [about Matheson]. But there's also a sense that 'He may be an SOB, but he's our SOB,' " Wilson says.

"There's nothing in politics that guarantees extremism," he adds. "You simply have to work toward the center. You're not going to win without the Utah mainstream."