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His name will be conspicuously absent from the ballot.

Matthew Godfrey, the longtime Ogden mayor who was still a 20-something when he ascended to the city's highest political office, will put aside his public post this year to become one of dozens of incumbents statewide not to seek re-election.

"It will be very nice for me," Godfrey said.

Despite the advantages that can come with incumbency — name recognition, fundraising ties, media exposure — elected officials in cities stretching from Cache Valley to Utah's Dixie will call it quits this year. Some will leave because of illness. Others will seek new careers, foreign travels or higher office. At least one has stepped down amid scandal.

Their names have a familiar ring:

Think Carolynn Burt, who will leave West Valley City after 13 years. On principle, she's opposed to lengthy stays in public office. But she's also battling leukemia.

Think Steve Turley, who didn't finish his second term in Provo. The councilman was indicted on felony fraud charges connected to his private business and resigned this fall after an investigation suggested he violated ethics rules as an elected official.

Think Barry Topham, who played a role in Holladay's incorporation. He will leave office after a single term after fighting unsuccessfully against hundreds of housing units and a tax incentive for the Cottonwood Mall redevelopment project.

And yet, the exodus of incumbents is particularly poignant in Utah's seventh most-populous city, where Godfrey — elected in 1999as the city's youngest mayor at 29 — will end a three-term tenure defined, in part, by his efforts to remake the aging railroad town into an outdoor sports destination.

Godfrey muses that he'll be the happiest person in Ogden come January, when the new mayor is sworn it. That's not counting his wife, Monica, who finally will have her husband back after 12 years in public service.

Under Godfrey's watch, Ogden has undergone a rebirth, of sorts. The city has redeveloped or renovated 150 acres of downtown. It has been named one of the nation's top job creators. It has lured a number of national outdoors companies.

None of that was easy, Godfrey said.

"The hardest thing was creating change in this community: to get insiders and outsiders alike to see that Ogden could be this great city again," he said. "I have a lot of scars from pushing that rock up the hill."

The now-41-year-old mayor is ready for change in his own life. He's ready to spend more time with his five children, ages 8 to 16, and shelve a work schedule that sometimes occupies nights and weekends. The trouble with city business, Godfrey said, is that it doesn't stop.

"Everywhere you go, people are talking about it," he said. "And even when you sleep, you dream about it. It can be tiring."

So Ogden's 83,000 residents will have to adapt to a new administration — either to a Mayor Mike Caldwell or Mayor Brandon Stephenson, depending on who wins on Election Day.

While Godfrey and others are leaving office voluntarily, incumbents aiming to return to office may face a harder-than-usual re-election run. Why? Because of the economy. That's according to Tim Chambless, a political scientist at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.

"In the last three years, we have had an unprecedented downturn‚" he said. "When times are hard and people are unhappy, they tend to vote no. They vote against the incumbent."

That trend has played out nationally in the U.S. Senate, Chambless said. In the past three years, the Senate has replaced an unusually high number of incumbents: 27. Although municipal elections are decidedly different from national ones — incumbents forge closer connections to their constituents by, say, attending the same churches, sending their children to the same schools or even living in the same neighborhoods — Chambless said they aren't altogether immune from voter backlash.

Still, the Nov. 8 ballot will include plenty of incumbents. It also will include cities with no incumbents at all. Here's a look at some elected officials who are staying, going or even coming back along the Wasatch Front.

Salt Lake City: A re-election capital

In Utah's capital, Mayor Ralph Becker and all three City Council members who face re-election are seeking another term.

Only two of those races are expected to be competitive. Becker faces only token opposition from J. Allen Kimball, a relatively unknown Avenues resident. The same goes for Councilman Luke Garrott, whose central-city District 4 opponent, Jack Gray, has only a few pennies more than $3 in his campaign account.

The real contests are in west-side District 2, where incumbent Van Turner faces an aggressive campaign by newcomer Kyle LaMalfa, and in east-side District 6, where incumbent J.T. Martin is trying to fend off a challenge by Planning Commissioner Charlie Luke.

Provo: Running incumbent-free

In this Utah County city, all four incumbents up for re-election — Cynthia Dayton, Sherrie Hall Everett, Midge Johnson and Turley — are stepping down.

Despite the controversy that has surrounded Turley and his early exodus, he and two fellow council members (Dayton and Johnson) announced previously that they planned to serve for only eight years.

"I threw out my [campaign] signs after the last election," Dayton said.

Everett will leave after a single term, but plans to remain involved in city affairs.

Draper: A political comeback?

Once the mayor of neighboring Bluffdale, Claudia Anderson is one of six candidates jockeying for three seats on the Draper City Council.

It could be an uphill race with all three council incumbents — Bill Colbert, Alan Summerhays and Troy Walker — running for re-election. Anderson is among the challengers, along with architect Shawn K. Benjamin and businessman Rod Besaw.

Anderson's return to politics comes after a particularly controversial tenure in Bluffdale, where many of her administrative powers were ceded to a city manager, by a public vote, after she sued to block that change. Anderson did not respond to Tribune requests for an interview.

West Valley City: Sick leave

Longtime Councilwoman Carolynn Burt will leave after 13 years of helping to shepherd Utah's second most-populous city. Part of that decision was her belief in term limits. The other part was leukemia.

With a bone marrow transplant pending — which undoubtedly would lead to weeks of missed council meetings — Burt said her constituents deserve a representative who can participate more actively. She is optimistic about her treatment.

"I'm going to get through it," she said. "I'm going to get well."

Consequently, Burt's name won't appear on the ballot for the first time since 1999, when she won her first term after replacing the late Councilman Leland DeLange, who died. She will do like so many other incumbents in January: Call it a day.

Reporters Katie Drake, Donald Meyers, Derek Jensen and Pam Manson contributed to this story. —

Politics up close

What election issues does your community face? Take a look in today's Close-Up section, which takes politics closer to home than anywhere else in The Tribune. Complete coverage is available online at http://www.sltrib.com/neighborhood.