Even as the Utah Democratic Party is pushing for a special election to replace John Swallow, Republicans are vying for position in the race to be one of the three names the Republican State Central Committee sends to Gov. Herbert following their December 14th meeting.
It’s not yet clear how those names will be selected, but one State Central Committee member tells Utah Policy he expects them to vote until one candidate emerges as a clear majority winner. That candidate’s name will be submitted to the governor as the preferred replacement from the SCC, along with two other names.
Utah GOP Executive Director Jeff Peterson tells Utah Policy they are currently looking at a number of methods for choosing those names to send to the governor, but have not settled on a particular method yet.Â
As for the list of candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring to replace Swallow, Daniel Burton at Publius Online has an exhaustive list of those who have been mentioned as well as those who have declared. They include:
- Sen. John Valentine
- Sean Reyes, who lost to Swallow in the 2012 primary election.
- Brett Rawson, who had already declared his intention to run for Attorney General in 2016.
- Rep. Derek Brown
- Morgan Philpot
- Frank Mylar – a GOP candidate for AG in 2000
- Rep. Dan McCay
