Gov. Olene Walker (R) Assumed office Nov. 2003, 1st term up Jan. 2005
Born:	Nov. 15, 1930, Ogden
Home:	Salt Lake City
Education:	BYU, B.A. 1953, Stanford U., M.A. 1954, U. of UT, Ph.D. 1980
Religion:	Mormon
Marital Status:	married (Myron)
Elected  Office:	UT House, 1980-1988; Lt. Gov. 1992-2003.
Professional Career:	Vice President, County Crisp Foods, 1969-1992.
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Mike Leavitt, a Republican, was elected governor of Utah in 1992 and reelected in 1996 and 2000. He grew up in Cedar City, in the southwest corner of the state, graduated from Southern Utah University, worked for and in the 1980s ran the family businesses, including an insurance company that has spread all over the West and has land holdings in southern Utah and Nevada. In between, he managed the campaigns of Governor Norman Bangerter and Senator Jake Garn. In 1992, when Bangerter retired after two terms, Leavitt ran himself. He won the Republican primary 56%-44% over Richard Eyre, who backed a $1,200 school choice voucher; Leavitt had his own Strategic Plan for Education and opposed vouchers. In the general, liberal Democrat Stewart Hanson ran third, with only 23%; second was anti-tax crusader and later 2d District Congressman Merrill Cook, with 34%; Leavitt won with 42%.

As the economy surged in the mid-1990s Leavitt cut taxes and pushed activist programs with catchy labels. One was the 1994 Healthprint insurance reforms; he boasted that Utah had lower health care costs than all but one other state. Another was a $120 million, seven-year Technology 2000 initiative. In 1995 he convened a Growth Summit, which proposed a $2.6 billion highway-building program, to make I-15 in Salt Lake County a 12-lane highway in time for the 2002 Winter Olympics; for that he raised gas taxes while cutting the sales tax. In 1996 he proposed a Legacy Highway, to be built parallel to and west of I-15, to be built after the Olympics. He worked to start, with other Western states, a Western Virtual University, and is completing UtahLINK, giving Internet access to all Utah schools.

On environmental issues, he backed a quality growth initiative, with incentives to local communities to preserve valuable open space, but no mandates. After discussions with Oregon's Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber, he advanced what he called Enlibra, ''a symbol of balance and stewardship,'' based on collaboration, local decision-making and free market incentives rather than government command and control, ''not to eliminate conflict but to shorten the conflict so as to increase the velocity of environmental problem-solving.'' Leavitt engineered land swaps with Clinton Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, but he was blindsided when in fall 1996 while campaigning in Arizona Bill Clinton announced the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Leavitt, other western governors and environmental groups developed an Enlibra National Fire Plan to allow thinning and logging of forests to avoid disastrous fires, but in 2002 Utah's James Hansen, chairman of the House Resources Committee, moved to sweep it aside and substitute the Bush administration's approach. In April 2003 he signed a memo of understanding with Interior Secretary Gale Norton: the state and localities would stop suing the federal government to gain title to pre-1976 roads and trails on national park, wildlife refuge and wilderness land, and the Bureau of Land Management would cede title to such roads on its lands if Utah could prove they existed before 1976.

In 1996 Democrats had to scrounge to find a candidate to run against Leavitt; he was re-elected 75%-23%. But as the 2000 election approached he was embroiled in controversy, often with members of his own party. He signed a carrying concealed weapon bill in 1995, but ordered state employees to leave their guns home in 1996 and in 1999 called for a ban on guns in churches and schools; that, and a threat to call a special session on guns, infuriated conservatives. In March 2000 he vetoed a bill substituting abstinence advocacy for sex education, but said he would work to see that schools stressed abstinence. In December 1999 Leavitt seemed to avoid primary opposition when he got House Speaker Marty Stephens to endorse him. But four little-known candidates ran anyway, and at the May 2000 state Republican convention, amid boos and catcalls, he failed to get the 60% required to win the nomination outright; on the final ballot he prevailed over the little-known Glen Davis by only 54%-46%. "I am in the mainstream of Republican thought," Leavitt insisted. "I'll take my message to the people." That message was a very conservative one in the primary; he stressed tax cuts, abstinence education, opposition to federal confiscation of private lands and opposition to trigger locks, without mentioning his abstinence veto, gun control measures and Enlibra. Leavitt spent more than $1 million, Davis only $70,000; but Leavitt won by an uninspiring 62%-38% margin.

His Democratic opponent was Bill Orton, three-term congressman from the heavily Republican 3d District until he was defeated in 1996. Orton said the well-financed Leavitt was beholden to special interests and criticized him for not taking a stand on guns; he frequently cited LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley's admonition that there was no reason a good Mormon could not be a Democrat. Leavitt spent $1.9 million altogether, Orton just $140,000; Leavitt won again by an unimpressive margin, 56%-42%, as Orton carried Salt Lake County, Summit County (which contains Park City and voted 10% for Ralph Nader) and three small traditionally Democratic rural counties.

In his third term Leavitt faced more severe fiscal problems than in his first two. In 2002 he called no less than three special sessions of the legislature to cut spending. Then and in the budget session in early 2003 he managed to avoid cuts in education spending, which had risen more than 50% since he first took office. Instead the rainy day fund was drained, one-time fixes applied and highway spending stretched out. Leavitt tried in vain to use a water tax that subsidized urban water use diverted to general spending. In 2003 legislators of both parties came together on a plan somewhat different from Leavitt's; he responded with four vetoes.

Utah imposes no term limit on governors, but it has never elected a governor to a fourth term and polls in late 2002 showed pluralities thought Leavitt shouldn't run again in 2004. He said he would decide in summer 2003. Speaker Marty Stephens, who did not run in 2000, was expected to run in 2004 whatever Leavitt's decision. Other Republicans mentioned in early 2003 were University Regents Nolan Karras and David Jordan and Jim Hansen, who retired from the House in 2002. Democrats mentioned include 2000 candidate Bill Orton, former Attorney General Jan Graham, former Congresswoman Karen Shepherd and Congressman Jim Matheson, whose father Scott Matheson was elected governor in 1976 and 1980.

Update: November 18, 2003
On November 5, 2003, Leavitt stepped down to become Administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Olene Walker.

Walker has indicated that her main priorities will be education reform, children's health issues and affordable housing. During her decade-long tenure as lieutenant governor, she concentrated on efforts to reform welfare, broaden health insurance and increase youth literacy. Walker also spearheaded an attempt to modernize Utah's election equipment, replacing punch-card ballot machines with a computerized system.

Her first foray into politics came in 1980, when she won election as one of just six women in the 104-member House. She ascended to Republican House leadership before her defeat in a 1988 reelection bid.

A mother to seven children, grandmother to 25, and great-grandmother to two, Walker will serve out the remainder of Leavitt's term, which ends in January 2005. She has not indicated whether she will run for a full term in 2004.

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Office
210 State Capitol, Salt Lake City 84114, 801-538-1000; Fax: 801-538-1528; Web: www.utah.gov/governor.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2000 general	Michael Leavitt (R)	424,837	56%
	Bill Orton (D)	321,979	42%
	Other	14,990	2%
2000 primary	Michael Leavitt (R)	122,289	62%
	Glen P. Davis (R)	75,719	38%
1996 general	Michael Leavitt (R)	503,693	75%
	Jim Bradley (D)	156,616	23%
	Other	11,570	2%