Gary Anderson is a former commissioner who temporarily lost his law license and oversaw a mental-health agency whose supervisors misused millions of dollars.

So why did Utah County Republicans vote last week to dump the 12-year incumbent without any blotches in favor of the comeback candidate lacking such a clean slate?

The answer, according to political observers, could be threefold:

l Gritty campaigning (Anderson did some; Grover didn't)

l Defection from a regional planning agency (Grover favored it; Anderson opposed it)

l Traffic congestion (Anderson was seen as attacking the problem; Grover was tagged as blocking solutions)

"Jerry did not run a good campaign," fellow Utah County Commissioner Steve White says. "He shouldn't have signed on for re-election if he wasn't going to run a campaign. I could tell he really didn't want it from the beginning."

Grover concedes that even longtime incumbents have to campaign aggressively.

"As county commissioners, even after 12 years, we're fairly unknown," he says.

But observers maintain the Utah County Commission's decision to bolt from the Mountainland Association of Governments played an even bigger role.

In February 2005, commissioners voted 2-1 (Larry Ellertson was the dissenter) to pull out of MAG. They labeled the agency - which oversees transportation planning and aging services for Utah, Summit and Wasatch counties - as ineffective and unac- countable.

Commissioners also complained Utah County wasn't getting its fair share of federal development funds divvied up by the regional asso- ciation.

The fallout from the split vote spawned a rift and angered several Utah County mayors, stalling discussions on pressing transportation issues in the state's second-most-populous county, MAG Executive Director Darrell Cook says.

"When that withdrawal happened, it put a wedge between the county and everybody else," Cook says. "Then the county was either on the offensive or the defensive. That created a strain."

Ellertson argues that strain trickled down from the politicians to the public.

"There was a general feeling that there had been discord between some of the local elected officials and the County Commission," Ellertson says. "That carried over."

Some saw the MAG pullout as a sign the commission was shying away from addressing Utah County's worsening transportation ills.

Anderson pounced on that perception and made it a rallying cry for his campaign.

"Our message really resonated," Anderson says. "People are tired of driving these roads and being close to gridlock and hearing for years Utah County has been allocated funds for transportation and hasn't used them."

That was never the case, Grover counters.

The commissioner says Anderson's camp criticized him for transportation slowdowns and accused him of blocking remedies, such as putting a quarter-cent sales-tax increase on the ballot.

But Grover voted to put the issue before voters.

"They lied about Jerry," White says. "But Jerry didn't respond."

White says Grover should have fired back. That's what White did at the county GOP convention, and he got through without a primary.

Even so, Grover downplays the MAG spat.

He says most people don't understand it and many had no idea the county was even involved with the agency until the commission voted to pull out.

Voter Vona Hunsaker confirms Grover's assessment.

She says she has never heard of MAG. In fact, her biggest concern wasn't even an issue.

"I've been very pleased that we have not had the problem Davis County has had with fluoridated water," Hunsaker says. "I was happy with the people we had in."

Utah County Republican delegate Peggy Burdett says she still is trying to figure out how Grover lost in a primary while White won at the convention when they share similar views.

"I cannot, for the life of me, put my finger on it," she says. "The county GOP convention was where it all started, and it continued into the primary."

An engineer and geologist by profession, Grover is now digging into the private sector for a new job. He doesn't plan to stir the pot during his last six months on the commission. He is ready to exit politics.

"Twelve years is long enough," he says.

But he wanted 16.

thollingshead@sltrib.com

Election results*

Gary Anderson: 15,889 - 56%

Jerry Grover (inc.): 12,514 - 44%

*Unofficial returns. (No Democrat is running in this race.)