Buttars, Curtis fighting for political lives

Two closely watched Utah legislative races are statistical dead heats as the final weekend of campaigning begins, a new poll shows.

Two well-known GOP incumbents are fighting for their political lives — House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, a poll conducted for the Deseret News and KSL-TV by Dan Jones & Associates shows.

Buttars leads Democrat John Rendell 42-40 percent in Senate District 10, and Curtis leads Democrat Jay Seegmiller 45-44 percent in House District 49.

In the Senate race, Jones interviewed 319 registered voters. In the House race, he interviewed 306 registered voters. Both polls have a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.

Statistically speaking, both races are a tie.

The new survey, finished Thursday night, shows a considerable change in the Senate race. But the House race was this close in another poll done this summer for the newspaper.

Both Buttars and Rendell said Friday that they always believed that their race was closer than a nearly 2-1 lead for Buttars reflected in the earlier survey.

"I've been working hard, and I believe I will do well" in the election, said Buttars, who seeks a third term in his southwest Salt Lake County district. "Like any election, this one will depend on getting (our supporters) out to vote." Buttars said he's never had a grass-roots effort like this year, an effort that includes support from some of Utah's most conservative groups, like the Utah Eagle Forum.

Rendell said he's seen tracking polls over the past month and a half that have shown a dead heat — and the new newspaper survey reflects how close it is. "I'll have a new direct-mail piece and a new (cable) TV spot going up" over this last weekend. And he hopes those, along with a sophisticated get-out-the-vote effort, will pay off.

Curtis defeated Seegmiller by 20 votes in the 2006 election. And both men figured it would be another hard-fought nail-biter in 2008.

Curtis said Friday both the Republican and Democratic party mailers flowing into House District 49 "have been tough." But he believes Democrats "are just trying character assassination against me — and I'm sorry for that. This should be a race on the issues — and if people listened to the several debates we've had on the radio, those were dealing with the issues — not all this other negative stuff."

Seegmiller predicts he'll pull the race out in the end. "I hope we'll have a decision Tuesday night" after all the votes have been counted. In 2006, he and Curtis had to wait four weeks to really know the winner — after the formal vote canvass of the east Sandy district was held. Seegmiller said that while Curtis may complain about Democratic Party campaign material, "I've insisted that all such mailers have my telephone number on them, and I haven't gotten one call" complaining about a mailer.

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