Cedar Hills and Lehi mayors were both surprised when their constituents voted them out of office on Tuesday.

"Needless to say I was disappointed," said Lehi Mayor Howard Johnson. He lost with 312 votes. Former Mayor Ken Greenwood, who received 799 votes, and Bert Wilson, who had 1,013, will be competing for the mayoral office in the general election instead.

Johnson said he felt he lost because of voter apathy outside of the city's downtown neighborhoods.

"My perception is Greenwood and Wilson did a good job of getting their people out and that is basically those people in the downtown area," he said. "I think my strength was more in the outlying areas and they didn't really come out to vote."

Johnson said after his term ends in January, he may do some sightseeing with his wife, Elaine Johnson, and maybe go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"But we don't know where that takes us at this age," said the mayor, who is 77 years old. "But I've got some road issues I'm trying to do good to the city on."

Cedar Hills Mayor Michael McGee had a different take on his own loss.

"Throw the bum out, it's pretty clear," McGee said. "Although, I've had people call me and say that with as much as you've done for Cedar Hills, it's probably the 'throw the incumbent out mentality.' "

McGee got just 143 votes to Eric Richardson's 519 and Jerry Dearinger's 454. He attributed some of his loss to recent illness and not being able to campaign like he would have liked to.

Former Cedar Hills Councilman Darin Lowder said McGee losing wasn't so much the campaign, but that there are opposing views brewing in his community.

"I think what we're seeing now is a resurgence of what is a philosophy that stripped us of all community services about four years ago, and now they have a few candidates running that made it through the primaries," Lowder said. "So this is a great opportunity for the voters to get informed of the two sides, because it is not sixes -- half a dozen of one and half a dozen of the other."

While Lowder sounded disappointed about the election results, McGee looked on the bright side of his loss. He said his wife told him he had been losing $3,500 a month from his business to make $1,100 as Cedar Hills mayor during his term. He said beginning in January he could devote more time to his work as a State Farm agent and to his family as a grandfather and father.

McGee said he hasn't decided if he will endorse anyone for the general election.

"They are fairly decent people, who just happen to have diverse point of views," he said. He said those viewpoints would prevent him from endorsing either mayoral candidate unless one of them made adjustments to their campaign.

"I'm feeling pretty good, it's not a big deal," McGee said. "I was happy to win or lose."

• Cathy Allred can be reached at heraldextra@digis.net.

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