ELECTIONS IN THE STATE OF UTAH
1952 Election
With Dwight D. Eisenhower leading the Republican party ticket, for the
first time since Herbert Hoover and the 1928 election a majority of
Utahns voted for the Republican candidate. The retired World War II
Supreme Commander received 194,190 voted to 135,364 for Adlai M.
Stevenson. With over 58 percent of the vote, Eisenhower represented a
radical shift for Utah, which had given strong support to Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman during the previous quarter of a
century. However, a shift away from the Democratic party had been
evident in 1950 when Republican Wallace Bennett won a victory over
the veteran New Dealer Elbert D. Thomas in the Senate contest of that
year.
In the 1952 Senate race, incumbent Republican Arthur V. Watkins, who
in 1946 had beaten the incumbent Democrat Abe Murdock by 101,000
votes to 96,000, defeated Democratic challenger Walter K. Granger by
a count of 177,435 votes to 149,598. In the First Congressional District,
Douglas Stringfellow, running on his record as a wounded World War II
hero, easily defeated Ernest McKay, 76,545 to 49,898. However, before
his term was over, Stringfellow confessed to having fabricated much of
his war record and resigned just before the 1954 election. In the
Second Congressional District, Utah′s first congresswomen, Reva Beck
Bosone, was defeated by William A. Dawson, who she had unseated in
1948. Bosone had won by a large vote of 93,770 to 68,693 in 1948;
she was defeated by Dawson in 1952 by a vote of 105,296 to 95,084.
Bosone had been expected to win reelection easily, and analysts
attributed her loss to the Republican deluge in 1952. With two
Republicans in the House and two in the Senate, this marked the first
time since 1914 that Utah′s entire congressional delegation was
Republican.
In the governor′s race, Republican J. Bracken Lee won a second term
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with a 180,516 to 147,188 victory over Earl J. Glade. Lee, considered
one of the most conservative politicians during a very conservative
time, was strongly opposed by organized labor and education but still
won an easy victory over Glade. The Republican trend was also evident
in the state senate and house, and in most county and district elections.
The Eisenhower/Republican victory came about for several reasons:
Eisenhower′s war record and the confidence that Utahns had in him
dealing with the Soviet Union; a very high percentage of young voters
who, wearing "I Like Ike" campaign buttons, voted for Eisenhower;
concerns that the Democrats were promoting socialism through such
programs as the Truman Health Plan; the unpopularity of the Korean
War, for which Utah National Guard units had been called up by Truman
and which, voters felt, Eisenhower could end quickly; charges of
corruption against the Truman administration; the feeling that it was
"time for a change," since the Democrats under Roosevelt and Truman
had been in control for twenty years; and the fear that the intellectual
Stevenson, who admitted that he did not have all the answers, was not
the best choice.
1956 Election
A Republican-dominated election through and through, the 1956
campaign in Utah was one of the most colorful in Utah history and three
men contended for the position of governor-George Dewey Clyde, L.C.
Romney and J. Bracken Lee. Lee, described by some as the most
colorful and controversial public figure in Utah politics since statehood,
had served two terms as governor, having been elected on a Republican
ticket in 1948 and 1952. He led a field of four candidates at the
Republican nominating convention, but it a direct primary runoff, Lee
finished second to George Dewey Clyde, an engineer and director of
Utah′s Water and Power Board, who had come in second at the
nominating convention. Despite his earlier statements eschewing a third
term, Lee decided to enter the race as an independent, claiming there
was no real difference between the Republican Clyde and the Democrat
Romney. As an independent, Lee finished a strong third with 94,438
votes (which was 28.3 percent of the vote) to 111,297 for Romney
(33.4 percent) and 127,164 (38.2 percent) for Clyde.
Lee had won the vote of the conservative, anti-government, anti-tax
bloc, but he found no support with teachers and educators, whom he
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labeled as self-serving and self-invited guests at the public trough. He
had alienated the Mormon Church authorities by vetoing a 1954 Sunday
closing bill, offended organized labor by signing a right-to-work bill, and
displeased the farmers by vetoing a bill providing them a tax rebate on
off-highway gasoline use. He was anathema to most Republican party
officials because he threatened to give the election to the Democrats by
dividing the Republican vote and because he failed to cooperate with
other party leaders, including bypassing them in making political
appointments. Lee, who had campaigned on a slogan of "economy,
efficiency, and honesty" in government, was hurt politically when lax
practices in the liquor control commission and state employee financial
contributions to his campaign were exposed. With a popular Republican
in the White House, Clyde had strong appeal for many voters because
of his experience in water issues, which was timely because of the
current Colorado River reclamation projects.
Dwight D. Eisenhower had won in Utah by a significant margin over
Adlai E. Stevenson in 1952; his victory over Stevenson in 1956 was
even greater. With 215,631 to 118,364 votes, Eisenhower′s 64.7
percent of the total vote was nearly a six percent improvement over
that of 1952. In 1952 Eisenhower had designated Apostle Ezra Taft
Benson of the Mormon Church to the be Secretary of Agriculture, the
highest political appointment for a Mormon to that time. In foreign
affairs, as the Middle East crisis over the Suez Canal threatened,
Eisenhower was seen as a careful and experienced leader who could
keep the country out of war.
In the Senate race, incumbent Wallace F. Bennett won reelection to a
second term with 178,261 to 152,120 victory over Democrat Alonzo F.
Hopkin, a long-time Utah legislator and livestock raiser from
northeastern Utah. In the congressional races, Republicans Henry A.
Dixon and William A. Dawson each won reelection with substantial
victories over Democratic candidates Carlyle F. Gronning (74,107 to
47,533) and Oscar W. McConkie, Jr., (119,683 to 87,970). The Utah
state senate and house of representatives remained solidly Republican,
with ratios of twenty-five to ten and forty to twenty-three, respectively.
1960 Election
Whereas the 1956 election had been dominated by the controversial
three-way contest for governor, the 1960 election saw a patchwork of
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issues, contests, and charges that enlivened the campaign on several
fronts. Although Richard Nixon carried Utah in his unsuccessful bid to
move from vice-president to president, his margin of victory was far
below that given Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. With 205,361 votes to
169,248 votes for John F. Kennedy, Nixon′s 54.7 percent was ten
percent lower than that given to Eisenhower in 1956. Both presidential
candidates spoke in Salt Lake City, and John Kennedy′s speech in the
Mormon Tabernacle, with references to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young,
Mormon scriptures, and even praise for Republicans Reed Smoot and
Ezra Taft Benson, seem much more effective than the cordial but less
specific remarks by Richard Nixon. Both candidates met with Mormon
Church president David O. McKay, and, while the eighty-six-year-old,
lifelong Republican told Kennedy that the Mormon Church would support
him if he were elected, he told Nixon that he hoped he would be the
next president. His comments implied, for some, an endorsement for
Richard Nixon by the Mormon Church. However, in a subsequent
statement, McKay clarified that, while he had wished a fellow
Republican success, this did not constitute a church endorsement for
Nixon and Mormons who favored Kennedy should vote for him.
J. Bracken Lee was not a factor in the 1960 election, and he suffered
humiliating defeat at the state Republican convention in an unsuccessful
attempt to be named a delegate in the national convention. However,
he had played a key role in the 1958 senatorial campaign, running as
an independent candidate in a three-way race that saw incumbent
Arthur V. Watkins defeated by Democratic newcomer Frank E. Moss.
With a vote of 112,827 for Moss, 101,471 for Watkins, and 77,013 for
Lee, it was clear that the conservative vote was split between Watkins
and Lee, giving the victory to Moss. Watkins was especially bitter
because he believed that Lee had entered the race out of spite for
Watkin′s role as chairman of the Senate select committee that censored
outspoken Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.
Democratic good fortune continued as Democrats N. Blaine Peterson
and David S. King were elected to the House of Representatives. King,
representing the Second Congressional District, won reelection with a
120,771 to 116,881 victory over Sherman P. Lloyd. Two years earlier,
he had defeated three-time incumbent Republican William A. Dawson by
a vote of 91,213 to 87,234. In an extremely close First Congressional
District contest, Democrat N. Blaine Peterson beat Republican A. Walter
Stevenson by 68 votes, 65,939 to 65,871.
Republicans did hold on to the governorship with the sixty-nine-year-old
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George Dewey Clyde winning reelection by a 52.7 percent margin
(195,634 to 175,855) over thirty-nine-year-old St. George mayor
William Barlocker. Barlocker appeared to have the election in hand but
his popularity dropped as rumors of moral misconduct circulated; he
also was ineffective in public debates and Republicans increased their
attacks on his competency. Republicans promoted Clyde as an
experienced, responsible, trusted, and efficient, if sometime dull, public
servant.
In the state legislature, Democrats, who had regained control of both
houses in the 1958 election, maintained control with a margin of thirty­
six to twenty-eight in the house and fourteen to eleven in the senate.
1964 Election
For the first time since 1948, Utah voters gave a majority to the
Democratic presidential candidate, Lyndon B. Johnson. John F. Kennedy′
s vice presidential running mate, who became president when Kennedy
was assassinated on 22 November 1963, Lyndon Johnson might be
considered an incumbent, and his 219,628 votes to the 181,785 votes
for Barry N. Goldwater gave a 54.7 percent victory for Johnson and his
"Great Society" over the conservative Goldwater. Nationally, the
American voters gave Johnson 61.4 percent of the vote, so the Utah
vote for Johnson was nearly six percent behind the national average.
Some analysts attributed Goldwater′s better showing in Utah to local
support for Ronald Reagan, whose nominating speech for Goldwater at
the Republican national convention was broadcast several times in Utah.
Democrat Frank E. Moss won his bid for a second term to the United
States Senate, decisively defeating Ernest L. Wilkinson, who took a
leave of absence from his position as president of Brigham Young
University; the vote was 227,822 to 169,562. The Moss victory coupled
with Wallace F. Bennett′s successful campaign for a third term in 1962,
with 166,755 votes to 151,656 for David S. King, maintained a balance
for Utah of one Republican and one Democrat in the United States
Senate. The balance also was reestablished in the House of
Representatives when David S. King defeated Republican Thomas G.
Judd 149,754 to 110,512 for the Second Congressional District seat,
while Republican Laurence J. Burton won his second term from the First
Congressional District, beating William G. Bruhn 75,986 to 59,768.
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After sixteen years of Republican domination in the statehouse, a
Democrat, Calvin L. Rampton, was elected governor of Utah by a vote
of 225,956 against 171,300 for Mitchell Melich. In the Utah legislature,
Democrats maintained a comfortable margin over Republicans, with a
thirty-nine to thirty margin in the house and one of thirteen to ten in
the senate.
1968 Election
With the exception of Calvin L. Rampton winning election to his second
term as governor, Utah went with the Republicans in the major races
during the 1968 election. Richard M. Nixon easily defeated Hubert H.
Humphrey, who became the Democratic standard-bearer when
President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to run for reelection. Nixon′s
238,728 votes to Humphrey′s 156,665 gave him 54.6 percent of the
Utah vote and began an unbroken string of Utah victories for Republican
presidential candidates that has continued through the 1992 election.
Conservative candidate George Wallace of the American Independent
party polled 26,906 votes, which was 6.4 percent of the total vote.
All three candidates appeared in Utah and spoke in the Salt Lake
Tabernacle. Hubert Humphrey′s 30 September visit was perhaps the
most significant. He had been jeered by hecklers at other campaign
stops but met with enthusiastic response from his supporters in Salt
Lake City. After his Tabernacle speech he went to a Sale Lake City
television studio and told a nationwide audience that he favored halting
the bombing of North Vietnam. Salt Lake City marked a turning point in
the Humphrey campaign. Throughout October and up until the election
Humphrey began to close the gap in his race with Nixon, but he lost to
the Republican by just over one percent of the popular vote.
Wallace F. Bennett won election to his fourth and final term in the
United States Senate with a 225,075 to 192,168 margin over
Democratic contender Milton L. Weilenman. In the House of
Representatives, Laurence J. Burton won election to his fourth term in
the First Congressional District with 139,456 votes to 65,265 for
Democrat Richard J. Maughn. In the second Congressional District,
Republican Sherman P. Lloyd also won by a large margin-130,127 to
80,948 for Galen Ross. However, the largest total vote in Utah when to
Calvin L. Rampton, who received 289,283 votes to 131,719 for
Republican businessman Carl W. Buehner. Utahns, who claimed to vote
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for the man and not the party, proved themselves true, at least in the
case of Calvin L. Rampton-nearly one-third of the voters scratched their
ballots to vote for a Democratic governor after voting for a Republican
president. Rampton′s 68.7 percent of the vote was nearly fourteen
percent more than that cast for Richard Nixon.
During the 1966 election, Democrats had lost control of the Utah
legislature. Twenty-nine Democratic representatives and eleven
senators went down to defeat; the new alignment put fifty-nine
Republicans against ten Democrats in the house and twenty-three
Republicans against five Democrats in the senate. Democrats made
somewhat of a comeback in the 1968 election, but the Republicans
continued to dominate, with forty-eight seats to twenty-one in the Utah
house of representatives and twenty to eight in the senate. Liquor by
the drink, the proposal to license private establishments to dispense
wine and alcohol, made its appearance as an initiative on the November
ballot. Proponents argued that less stringent liquor laws would boost
tourism; but, with LDS Church opposition to the measure, it was
defeated by a vote of 320,000 to 97,000.
1972 Election
Calvin L. Rampton won an unprecedented third consecutive term as Utah
′s governor with almost seventy percent of the vote. He defeated his
Republican opponent, Nicholas G. Strike, by a vote of 331,998 to
144,449. In the presidential contest, Republican Richard M. Nixon made
a strong showing, defeating Democrat George McGovern by a popular
vote of 323,643 to 126,284. Nixon won 67.7 percent of the vote,
increasing by thirteen percentage points his 1968 total. Nationwide,
Nixon′s margin was 62 percent; he won all but the state of
Massachusetts.
There was no local senatorial contest in the 1972 election; however,
Democrat Frank E. Moss was elected to his third term in 1970 with a
214,000 to 159,000 victory over Republican challenger Laurence J.
Burton. Democrats took both of the congressional seats. Incumbent K.
Gunn McKay defeated Robert Wolthuis by a 127,027 to 96,296 vote
count to gain a second term in the First congressional District. Wayne
Owens defeated Republican incumbent Sherman Lloyd 132,832 to
107,185 votes to capture the other congressional seat. However,
Republicans did win control of the Utah State Legislature, holding
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margins of forty-four to thirty-one in the house and sixteen to thirteen
in the senate.
The conservative American Independent party ran candidates for the
two congressional seats and for president of the United States. John G.
Schmitz received 28,549 votes (six percent) of the Utah total for
president while party congressional contenders did not do as well.
Leonard S. Brown polled 6,043, which was 2.8 percent of the vote in
the First Congressional race, and Bruce R. Bangerter received 3,685
votes, or 1.5 percent of the vote, in the Second Congressional District.
1976 Election
In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and the resignation of
Richard Nixon, Republican candidate Gerald Ford won a substantial
victory in Utah, polling 336,467 votes to Jimmy Carter′s 181,979. While
Ford′s margin of victory over Carter in Utah was 62.3 percent to 33.7
percent, nationally Ford lost to Carter by a slim two percent margin in
the popular vote.
After three terms as Utah′s governor, Calvin L. Rampton chose not to
run for reelection. Scott M. Matheson, an attorney for the Union Pacific
Railroad, continued the Democrat′s hold on the governor′s office by
defeating Republican Vernon Romney 279,455 to 246,392. In the U.S.
Senate race, three-term Democratic incumbent Frank Moss lost his bid
for a fourth term to Republican Orrin Hatch by a vote of 288,842 to
241,006. This gave Republicans both of Utah′s Senate seats. Following
the retirement of Senator Wallace Bennett in 1974, former Sale Lake
City mayor Jake Garn defeated Democrat and one-term congressman
Wayne Owens by a vote count of 210,000 to 185,000.
In the two congressional races, K. Gunn McKay won reelection to a
fourth term in the First District by defeating Republican Joe Ferguson
147,255 to 106,009. In the Second Congressional District, Democrat
Allen T. Howe was defeated in his bid for a second term by Republican
Dan Marriott. In the three-way race, Marriott gained 143,851 votes,
Howe 104,513, and fellow Democrat Daryl McCarty was written in by
20,689 voters. The entry of McCarty into the race as a write-in
candidate came after Congressman Howe′s arrest and conviction in Salt
Lake City for soliciting sex for hire during the summer of 1976.
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The Utah Legislature continued under Republican control with a forty to
thirty-five seat majority in the house and one of seventeen to twelve in
the senate. Included among the Democratic representatives were the
first Afro-American, Reverend Robert Harris, and the first Hispanic, John
Ulibarri-both elected from districts in Weber County. Voters also
approved a Utah constitutional amendment lowering the voting age to
eighteen years old to be in line with the twenty-sixth Amendment to the
United State Constitution, which was ratified in July 1971.
Because of the efforts of right-wing activists, three initiative proposals
were on the ballot. Despite strong opposition by dentists and the
medical community, voters approved the "Freedom from Compulsory
Fluoridation and Medication Act," which prohibited the Utah State Board
of Health from adding fluorides and other medications to any public
water supply. The two other proposals-one authorizing the recall of an
elected or appointed public officer for any reason, including political
reasons, and the other, which imposed an annual budget ceiling while
phasing out the receipt of federal revenues-were both defeated.
1980 Election
Republican Ronald Reagan received nearly three-quarters of the Utah
presidential vote, with 439,687 votes (72.8 percent of the vote). The
incumbent president and Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter, polled
only 124,266, votes, or 20.6 percent of the votes cast. Carter received
nearly 58,000 fewer votes in Utah than he had in 1976, and he dropped
13 percent from his figure in the election four years earlier. The
tremendous Republican victory came because of disillusionment with
Carter and also due to the great popularity of Ronald Reagan in Utah.
Nationally, Reagan won by a 10 percent margin. Yet Reagan won in all
twenty-nine Utah counties, although by only three votes in the
traditionally Democratic stronghold of Carbon County.
Democratic Governor Scott M. Matheson proved to be a popular
governor, winning reelection to a second term by 330,974 votes to
266,578 for Republican Bob Wright. Matheson widened his margin of
victory from 52 percent in 1976 to more than 55 percent in 1980, and
his victory once again demonstrated the willingness of a majority of
Utahns to cross party lines in voting for candidates for the major offices.
In the United States Senate race, Republican E.J. (Jake) Garn won
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reelection to a second term with a huge victory over Democratic
candidate Dan German-437,675 votes to 151,454. Garn′s 73.6 percent
of the vote was one of the largest percentages ever gained for a United
States Senate seat from Utah. The two House of Representatives
elections also went to Republicans. James V. Hansen defeated Democrat
K. Gunn McKay′s bid for a fifth consecutive term from the First
Congressional District with a vote of 157,111 to 144,459. In the second
district, Republican Dan Marriott won his third consecutive term with an
easy 290,765 to 194,885 victory over Democratic challenger Arthur L.
Monson.
In the Utah State Legislature, Republicans continued their control, with
fifty-seven to eighteen seats in the house and twenty-two to seven
seats in the senate. Utahns defeated two tax initiative proposals: one
that would have removed the sales tax from food, and another that
would have placed a ceiling limit on property taxes. Voters also
defeated a proposition that would have raised compensation for state
legislators from twenty-four dollars a day to forty dollars a day, even
though Utah′s legislative compensation ranked forty-eighth in the
nation. Two constitutional amendments did pass: one provided that the
governor and lieutenant governor would belong to the same party; the
other removed a constitutional prohibition against work-release
programs for prisoners as well as employment of women in mines.
1984 Election
Ronald Reagan continued to be Utah′s favorite president since it
obtained statehood, winning the 1984 election with 469,105 votes (74.5
percent) over Democratic challenger Walter Mondale, who polled
155,369 votes. When Scott Matheson decided not to run for a third
term as Utah′s governor, Wayne Owens was nominated by the
Democrats to succeed Matheson. However, Owens lost the election to
the Republican Norman H. Bangerter, a home builder, real estate
developer, and two-term Speaker of the Utah house of representative.
Bangerter won with 351,792 votes to 275,669 for Owens. While there
was no Senate contest in 1984, two years earlier Republican Orrin
Hatch won reelection to a second term with a 308,332 vote to 219,482
vote margin over Democrat and former Sale Lake City mayor Ted
Wilson.
In 1982 Utah was given a third seat in the U.S. House of
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Representatives, and Brigham Young University professor Howard C.
Nelson won election to it. Nelson won reelection to a second term from
the Third Congressional District with a large margin-138,918 votes to
46,560-over Democrat Bruce R. Baird. In the First Congressional
District, incumbent James V. Hansen won reelection to a third term with
142,952 votes compared to 56,619 for Democrat Milton C. Abrams,
former director of the Utah State University Library and chair of the
Utah Board of State History. In the Second Congressional District,
incumbent Dan Marriott did not run; but Republicans held onto the seat
with a slim victory of 496 votes for David S. Monson over Democratic
contender Francis Farley (105,540 to 105,044 votes). Farley had lost to
Marriott in 1982, but her campaigns in 1982 and 1984 represented the
first women candidate for Congress since Reva Beck Bosone in 1952
and set the stage for a two-women race for the seat in 1992.
In the Utah State Legislature, Republicans widened their margin over
what it was in the 1980 with a sixty-one to fourteen margin in the
house and a twenty-three to six count in the senate. Voters approved a
proposition that changed the legislative session from a sixty-day
general session in odd years and a twenty-day budget session in an
even year to an annual forty-five day session. The right to bear arms
was strengthened by a proposal that outlined that that right could not
be limited. Voters rejected by a vote of 364,873 to 233,082 a
controversial cable television regulation initiative that sought to deal
with indecent and obscene materials.
1988 Election
Although not as popular with Utah voters as was Ronald Reagan,
George Bush, Reagan′s two-term vice-president, easily won the 1988
presidential election in Utah with a 428,442 to 207,343 vote count over
Democrat Michael Dukakis. While nationwide Bush won eight percent
more of the vote than Dukakis, in Utah his margin over Dukakis was
twenty-six percent.
In the governor′s race, incumbent Norman H. Bangerter won a come­
from-behind victory over Democratic challenger Ted Wilson, with
260,462 votes to 249,321. Incumbent Republican Orrin Hatch won
reelection to his third term in the United States Senate by defeating
Democratic challenger Brian H. Moss 430,089 votes to 203,364. Two
years earlier, in 1986, incumbent E.J. "Jake" Garn won reelection to his
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third term in the Senate with a 314,608 to 115,523 count over
Democratic challenger Craig Oliver.
In the United States House of Representatives, all three incumbents
won reelection: James V. Hansen gained his fifth term in the First
Congressional District with a victory over Democrat Gunn McKay by
130,893 votes to 87,976; Democrat Wayne Owens in the Second
Congressional District defeated Republican Richard Snelgrove 112,129
votes to 80,212; and Republican Howard Nielsen won his fourth election
in the Third Congressional District with 129,951 votes to Democrat
Robert W. Stringham′s 60,018 votes. In the Utah State Legislature
Republicans prevailed with a forty-eight to twenty-seven seat majority
in the house and a twenty-two to seven seat count in the senate.
1992 Election
Remarkable aspects of the 1992 election included the poor showing in
the state by two major Democratic candidates, the significant decline in
support for incumbent George Bush, the popularity of independent
candidates Ross Perot and Merrill Cook, and the increased participation
of women as candidates. Both Bill Clinton, the Democratic presidential
candidate who defeated Republican incumbent George Bush in the
national election, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stewart
Hanson finished third in Utah. Clinton received 182,590 votes, or 25
percent of the Utah total. A strong showing by Ross Perot with 202,796
votes (twenty-seven percent) put the independent candidate in second
place in Utah, making Utah the only state in the nation where Perot
came in second and Clinton third. George Bush won the election in Utah
with 320,858 votes, which was 43 percent of the total. Nevertheless,
Bush had lost considerable popularity in Utah-he received over 108,000
fewer votes in 1992 than he had in 1988. Clinton polled nearly 25,000
votes less than had Dukakis in 1988, indicating that Perot was the
recipient of strong support by voters discontented with both parties.
The governor′s race was a three-way contest between Republican
Michael Leavitt, Democrat Stewart Hansen, and independent Merrill
Cook. Leavitt won the election with 320,015 votes (42 percent of the
total), but Cook finished strong with 254,960 votes (34 percent of the
total). Democrat Stewart Hanson won only 176,404 votes, or 23
percent of the total.
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Senator Jake Garn decided not to seek a fourth term, and following a
close contest in the primaries against fellow Republican Joseph Cannon,
Robert Bennett defeated Wayne Owens to win the United States Senate
seat which had been occupied by his father, Wallace Bennett, from
1951 to 1975. Bennett won with 417,993 votes to 300,111 votes for
Owens, who had vacated his congressional seat, which he had held
since the 1986 election, to run for Senate. However, trouble with
overdrafts growing out of the House bank scandal hurt Owens.
The Second Congressional District race proved most interesting, as both
parties ran female candidates. Democrat Karen Shepherd won election,
defeating Republican Enid Greene 127,543 to 118,103 votes. Shepherd
became the second woman congressperson in Utah′s history and the
first woman elected since Reva Beck Bosone in 1950. In the First and
Third congressional districts incumbents won by substantial margins.
James V. Hansen won a seventh term from the First District, defeating
Ronald Holt by 159,601 votes to 68,547. Democrat Bill Orton won in the
Third District with a 133,909 to 83,009 vote count over Richard R.
Harrington.
Utahns also elected their first women as attorney general and lieutenant
governor. Democrat Jan Graham narrowly defeated Republican Scott
Burns by 362,805 to 356,751 votes to become Utah Attorney General.
Olene Walker won on the Republican ticket with Mike Leavitt in a race in
which all three contenders for lieutenant governor-Olene Walker,
Frances Hatch Merrill (Independent), and Paula Julander (Democrat)­
were women.
In the Utah State Legislature, Republicans continued their control of
both houses with a forty-nine to twenty-six margin in the house and an
eighteen to eleven margin in the senate. An initiative to legalize pari­
mutuel betting on horse races failed by a vote of 449,052 to 296,529.
Allan Kent Powell
SOURCE... Article is from the Utah History Encyclopedia. Powell, Allan Kent, ed. 13 of 14
Salt Lake City, Utah : The University of Utah Press, 1994
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