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SALT LAKE CITY -- With the election campaigns heading down the home stretch, both of Utah's major parties tried to pump up the blood pressure and energize the troops Saturday. They're making a final push to get their voters to the polls on Tuesday.
Republicans know they have the political wind at their back, but Democrats aren't conceding anything.
At a Democratic Party rally in Salt Lake City Saturday, gubernatorial candidate Peter Corroon joined Senate hopeful Sam Granato and incumbent Congressman Jim Matheson. Their goal was to charge up campaign workers for a last round of door knocking.
"In low-turnout elections, the ground game matters all the more; and today is all about the ground game," Matheson said. "There is a very sophisticated plan that is underway to get people out to vote, and this is a part of that plan."
"We need some change in our state government to make sure that we have a strong education system, to make sure that we continue to have great jobs, and an economy in Utah that is strong for our citizens so they can get jobs," Corroon said.
Their Republican opponents held their own rally in Draper. Gov. Gary Herbert shared the spotlight with Senate candidate Mike Lee and congressional challenger Morgan Philpot.
"The Republican turnout is great this year," Philpot said, "and the unaffiliated independent turnout looks to be breaking Republican because they're very disappointed with this agenda going on in Washington D.C."
"There's great things happening in our state," Herbert said. "We're just announcing yesterday about a new manufacturing plant, Litehouse foods down in Hurricane, in Utah, 162 new jobs. So, Utah is on the march."
Among those joining Republicans was Alice Baker, the 79-year-old woman who spent $50,000 on her own political ads supporting Philpot.
E-mail: jhollenhorst@ksl.com
