MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From national politics, we're going to go local now and hear about one of the country's most outspoken and most liberal mayors. Democrat Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City is leaving office next week. He made a name for himself with aggressive leadership on global warming and with his calls to impeach President Bush.
From member station KUER, Jenny Brundin tells us about his time in office.
JENNY BRUNDIN: Just about everything Rocky did - people here simply call him Rocky - generated controversy, whether it was banning water bottles in city hall, calling for looser liquor laws or holding mass antiwar demonstrations.
Here's Mayor Rocky Anderson when President Bush came to town.
Mayor ROCKY ANDERSON (Democrat, Salt Lake City, Utah): Or to show slavish, blind obedience, and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president.
BRUNDIN: Salt Lake City's liberal majority adored him, cheering him on. Reverend Tom Goldsmith.
Reverend TOM GOLDSMITH (Unitarian Church, Salt Lake City): He was sensational. He just was able to articulate policies, the politics that everyone really felt inside. And he was the voice that we've been waiting for.
BRUNDIN: But the rest of Utah, typically Republican, found the former civil rights lawyer profoundly embarrassing. Here's Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
Mr. MARK SHURTLEFF (Attorney General, Utah): Rocky says he doesn't respect people who follow our president? Well, let me tell you something. Rocky says that if we had more people who had the integrity to stand up like him, wow, I'm going to call bull on you, Rocky, today. That is not right.
BRUNDIN: But Rocky Anderson wasn't about the politics of consensus. Instead, he was deeply disturbed by what he called the nation's culture of obedience, a culture he believes is particularly powerful in Utah. And the mayor was baffled by the reaction of Utahns outside Salt Lake whenever he led rallies or introduced bold initiatives.
Mayor ANDERSON: When it comes to matters of principle, I don't think you ever let go. I think you have to stand up on certain things. And if people see that as confrontational, I think they're personalizing it too much.
Ms. DEEDA SEED (Mayor Rocky Anderson's Former Chief of Staff): The way Rocky provokes people in terms of public policy…
BRUNDIN: Anderson's former chief of staff, Deeda Seed.
Ms. SEED: For Utah, well, it was unusual. People were shocked and amazed that he was willing to be impolite about issues that he cared about.
Mr. ANDERSON: And yet these vested interests, the coal industry and the legislators…
BRUNDIN: Anderson's biggest passion was global warming. He pushed mayors nationwide to reach the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, reducing carbon emissions from city operations by 30 percent. And he used every means at his disposal to carry his hard-hitting message to people.
(Soundbite of Music)
BRUNDIN: At this high school, after a lecture on the downsides of coal-fired power plants, the 56-year-old Anderson straps on his guitar, thrashing along to "Baby, Please Don't Go." But he has rewritten the lyrics. Got to stop the coal, got to stop the coal. As our world burns up, don't you be so cruel.
But as his popularity and stature grew at home and on the world stage, turbulence increased at city hall. Anderson frequently clashed with the city council. Council member Eric Jergensen says the mayor wasn't collaborative.
Mr. ERIC JERGENSEN (Councilmember, Salt Lake City Council): If you don't agree with this particular mayor, boy, he'll jump down your throat so fast, it'll make your head spin. And he's, at times, abusive if you don't agree with him.
BRUNDIN: In eight years, the mayor went through nine communications directors and five chiefs of staff. He became persona non grata at the Utah legislature after he joined a lawsuit to block a multimillion-dollar highway and championed causes unpopular with the body's conservative majority.
Representative Mike Noel.
State Representative MIKE NOEL (Utah State Legislature): He's antagonized a lot of people. He's just way out there for Utah.
BRUNDIN: Even some loyal supporters were starting to tire of the turbulence that surrounded him. Still, most agree, if he wanted to, Mayor Anderson could have won a third term in Salt Lake. Instead, he's leaving to create his own nonprofit focused on human rights and global warming.
For NPR News, I'm Jenny Brundin in Salt Lake City.