This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Obama gets four more years. Matheson survives. Only 1,462 days to Election Day 2016.
Happy Wednesday. Many predicted a late night, some predicted a Mitt Romney victory, but in the end the polls held true and President Barack Obama handily won a second term in office. In victory, Obama gave the soaring speech he rarely did on the campaign trail saying as a united people "the best is yet to come." [WSJournal] [WaPost] [LATimes] [NYTimes] [FoxNews]
-> Mitt Romney's long difficult presidential path came up just short of the White House leaving him, his family and his supporters to grieve. "I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction," Romney said. [Trib]
-> The Mormon moment came to a painful end but the faithful still found positives in Romney's bid. [Trib]
-> The LDS Church's First Presidency released a statement on the election commending Obama and Romney: "After a long campaign, this is now a time for Americans to come together. It is a long tradition among Latter-day Saints to pray for our national leaders in our personal prayers and in our congregations." [ABC4]
-> Watch their election night speeches courtesy of Fox13: [Obama] [Romney]
-> Romney gets 72.7 percent of the vote in Utah falling short of the 74.5 percent Ronald Reagan carried the state in 1984. [DNews]
-> Rep. Jim Matheson is the political Houdini Despite the "Romney tsunami" in Utah and an aggressive and well funded challenge by Mia Love, Matheson escaped with a 2,818 vote advantage and another two years in the House. [Trib] [DNews] [Herald]
Federal: President: Barack Obama (D) 50 percent, Mitt Romney (R) 48 percent in the Electoral College it is Obama 303 to Romney 206 with Florida still too close to call U.S. Senate: Democrats 53, Republicans 45 and the two remaning seats are leaning to the Dems. U.S. House: Republicans 231, Democrats 189. Some districts are not yet determined. UT Sen: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) 65.1 percent, Scott Howell (D) 30.3 percent UT1: Rep. Rob Bishop (R) 71.5 percent, Donna McAleer (D) 24.7 percent UT2: Chris Stewart (R) 62 percent, Jay Seegmiller (D) 33.8 percent UT3: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) 76.4 percent, Soren Simonsen (D) 23.6 percent UT4: Rep. Jim Matheson (D) 49.3 percent, Mia Love (R) 48.1 percent
State: Governor: Gov. Gary Herbert (R) 68.3 percent, Peter Cooke (D) 27.8 percent Attorney General: John Swallow (R) 64.5 percent, Dee Smith (D) 30.2 percent Utah Senate: Republicans 23, Democrats 6 (includes unofficial results) Utah House: Republicans 61, Democrats 14 (includes unofficial results)
Salt Lake County: Mayor: Ben McAdams (D) 54.9 percent, Mark Crockett (R) 45.1 percent County at large: Jim Bradley (D) 54 percent, Joseph Demma (R) 45.9 percent Millcreek incorporation: For 40.9 percent, Against 59.1 percent
Here's the full listing of Utah results: [Trib]
Winners: Utah incumbents, Hispanics, Bill Clinton, national pollsters and of course Obama Losers: Salt Lake County Republicans, Karl Rove, the Tribune poll and of course Romney.
Tweets of the day: From @askmormongirl: "Thank you President Barack OBama for bringing another Mormon moment to an end."
From @NatalieCGordon: "Do you know why my heart is breaking? Because I had the audacity to hope. Thank you, @MittRomney, for putting yourself out there."
From @PubliusDB: "With this loss, the GOP needs to reevaluate a lot. Immigration, women's issues, poor candidates, and communication, to start."
From @IngrahamAngle: "NOT THE LIFE OF THE PARTY: Akin & Mourdock losses...lesson? REPUBLICAN men with foot-in-mouth disease need not apply."
From @rickygervais: "Can't believe Romney won Utah."
Happy birthday: To state Sen. Howard Stephenson, Connor Boyack and Ron Bigelow, Utah State Budget Director.
Utah contests: Scroll through our photo gallery of election night. [Trib]
-> Ben McAdams handily won the race to become Salt Lake County mayor, keeping the seat in Democratic hands. [Trib] [DNews] [ABC4]
-> Pat Bagley pokes fun at the widely inaccurate Tribune poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon. [Trib]
-> Utahns reelect Sen. Orrin Hatch for a seventh term, placing him in the rare stratosphere of elected officials who could serve 42 years in office. [Trib] [DNews]
-> Utah has one new House member: Chris Stewart, a Republican and former U.S. Air Force pilot, who will represent the state's 2nd District, the only seat that didn't have an incumbent in the race. [Trib]
-> Gov. Gary Herbert has no problem winning four more years. [Trib] [DNews]
-> Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz handily defeat their opponents. [Trib] [DNews]
-> A Romney loss was also a loss for Utahns who hoped to work in his administration, including former Gov. Mike Leavitt. [DNews]
-> Politics is an incumbent's game, with little change throughout Utah. [UtahPolicy]
-> Romney didn't drive higher turnout in Salt Lake County. [UtahPolicy] And a huge number of Romney supporters also voted for McAdams. [UtahPolicy]
-> Republican John Swallow will succeed his mentor Mark Shurtleff in the Office of the Attorney General. [Trib] [DNews]
-> Republicans picked up a few seats in the state Legislature. [Trib] [DNews]
-> Salt Lake County Council incumbents hold their seats while Democrat Sam Granato wins in an open contest. The council remains 5-4 Republican. [Trib]
-> Salt Lake County voters pass the $47 million parks bond that will benefit the development of several parks and trails. [Trib] [DNews]
-> The residents of Millcreek overwhelmingly side to stay unincorporated. [Trib] [DNews]
-> Utah voters approved a tax break for military personnel. [Trib]
-> Utah state school board incumbents keep their seats. [Trib]
-> Utahns elect John Dougall as the state auditor, the first non-CPA in 40 years. [Trib]
-> A recap of election results in Davis, Utah and Weber counties. [Trib]
-> Paul Rolly weighs in on a social justice protester, profitable alcohol sales in Idaho and the 'H' in Uintah. [Trib]
-> State officials are trying to get in contact with a Salt Lake County voter who decided she was entitled to a receipt, yanking several feet of paper out of the machine. [Trib]
2012 recap: If Florida remains in Obama's column, Nate Silver and his FiveThirtyEight blog will have called every state right, despite the pounding he was getting by skeptical journalists, pundits and Republicans. Apparently, the polls were not skewed. [NYTimes]
-> Can the same president and a similar Congress change the status quo? That is the challenge facing the nation. [WaPost] [NYTimes]
-> GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan doesn't have to worry about a job for the next two years. He won reelection to his House seat. [USAToday]
-> Poorly-chosen rape remarks cost Republicans two Senate seats and in the process killed their party's chances of taking control of the Senate. [Politico] [BuzzFeed] [USAToday]
-> Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly-gay senator in the country's history. [Reuters]
-> Democrat Elizabeth Warren reclaimed the Massachusetts's Senate seat once held by Sen. Ted Kennedy, in an expensively and closely watched contest against Republican Scott Brown. [Globe]
-> Voters in the Sandy-devastated East Coast found their way to the voting booths, many walking several miles and voting outside of their own districts. [USAToday]
-> A Michigan man dies while voting, but is revived by nearby home care registered nurse. His first question post-revival: "Did I vote?" [DetroitNews]
-> Romney's Mormonism was prominently featured in a pro-Obama pamphlet circulated primarily to religious African-Americans. [WaPost]
-> Maryland votes to approve same-sex marriage. [WaPost]
-> Colorado legalizes marijuana use. [DPost]
-> North Carolina elects its first Republican governor in 24 years. [DailyBeast] [WaPost]
-> New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan is to be the country's only Democratic female governor. [HuffPost]
-> BuzzFeed picks the MVPs for the Democrats (Bill Clinton) and the Republicans (Ann Romney), while also handing out other election awards. [BuzzFeed]
-> Ron Paul didn't vote for Romney. Or Obama. [CNN]
Where are they?
SL Co. Mayor Peter Corroon meets with Brent Anderson and Jana Rae Shaw of the Living Planet Aquarium.
SLC Mayor Ralph Becker attends a Sugar House Streetcar meeting, gets together with community liaisons and later meets with South Salt Lake Mayor Cherie Wood.
WVC Mayor Mike Winder dines at a GenX GOP luncheon at Lamb's Grill before hosting"Milk with the Mayor" open door meetings.
President Barack Obama will spend the morning in Chicago before returning to the White House.
Got a tip? A birthday, wedding or anniversary to announce? Email us at cornflakes@sltrib.com. If you haven't already, sign up for our weekday email and get this sent directly to your inbox. [Trib]
— Matt Canham and Betsy Blanchard Twitter.com/mattcanham and Twitter.com/betsyblanchard