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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah voters decided they like their incumbents just fine.
All three of Utah's congressmen won re-election Tuesday, including Democrat Jim Matheson.
Utah Republican U.S. Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz breezed to easy victories, with Chaffetz garnering 72 percent of the vote and Bishop earning about 69 percent. Bishop won a fifth term, while Chaffetz won his second term.
Utah voters also decided to keep Republican Gov. Gary Herbert in office. He won a two-year term in a special election against Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon. The term expires in 2012 because Herbert is filling the remainder of former Gov. Jon Huntsman's term. Huntsman resigned in August 2009 to become U.S. ambassador to China.
But voters in Utah will send one new face to Washington.
Conservative Republican Mike Lee won his first bid for public office, easily defeating Democratic challenger Sam Granato in the U.S. Senate race.
In a year in which incumbents, especially Democrats, were vulnerable to voter discontent, Matheson fended off a serious challenge from Republican Morgan Philpot to win a sixth term.
Matheson won with nearly 51 percent of the vote, compared with just under 46 percent for Philpot, a former state lawmaker and one-time vice chairman of the state Republican Party.
Philpot spent much of the campaign linking a vote to the moderate Matheson to a vote for the more liberal House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California.
Matheson's vote for Democratic party leadership will be much less influential when he returns to Washington. Republicans won control of the House, likely resulting in House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio becoming the new House speaker.
The Lee-Granato race was never in doubt. A Democrat last won a U.S. Senate race in 1970.
"In Utah, it was an unwinnable race for a Democrat," Granato told the AP after he conceded to Lee.
Lee will replace GOP U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, who failed to advance to the Republican primary this spring. Delegates to the GOP convention didn't believe Bennett was conservative enough to continue representing Utah.
Lee, a constitutional law attorney, pledged to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, including repealing President Barack Obama's health care measure.
"With tonight's results voters in Utah and across America are sending people like me to Washington with significant victories, clear mandates and renewed trust that we will stand for these bedrock principles upon which our nation was built," Lee said in remarks prepared for a victory speech Tuesday night. "America is awake and watching."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
