On Friday, Republican Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox announced a schedule for a special election to replace Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, but state lawmakers are not happy about it. Under Cox’s plan, the candidate filing deadline is May 26—bizarrely, over a month before the date Chaffetz has said his resignation will become effective, June 30—and party primaries take place on Aug. 15, the same day as the state’s municipal primaries. The general election will happen on Nov. 7.
However, legislators say that Republican Gov. Gary Herbert needs to call a special session to clarify Utah’s extremely vague special election laws. They argue that Herbert is taking unilateral action by setting his own rules for the special, and they’ve made noises about suing. However, unless Herbert backs down and calls a special session, or a lawsuit succeeds in forcing his hand, it looks like the dates are set.
In any event, would-be office-seekers can’t count on the dates getting changed, and they now have just a week to decide whether they want to run. They’ll probably have to move even more quickly than that, though, because candidates have to submit 7,000 valid signatures to election officials no later than June 12, a fairly daunting task for a very short timeframe. Parties can still choose to hold nominating conventions (a Utah tradition), but candidates can bypass any such conventions by going the petition route.
A few Republicans have already decided to run for what is usually a reliably red seat. State Sen. Deidre Henderson, a former Chaffetz campaign manager, made noises about running almost as soon as her former boss announced he wouldn’t seek another term last month, and she jumped in on Friday. Two other GOP legislators and state Rep. Brad Daw and state Sen. Margaret Dayton, have also announced they’re in, as is ex-state Rep. Chris Herrod, who ran a forgettable 2012 bid against GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch. Provo Mayor John Curtis also said on Thursday that he’ll decide within days. Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge also has been encouraging his son Tanner Ainge, who lives in Utah, to run, and the younger Ainge says he’s interested.
However, the potential candidate with the most national name recognition may not run as a Republican. Last year, Trump defeated conservative independent and former GOP congressional aide Evan McMullin 47-24 here, with Hillary Clinton taking third place with 23 percent. Last month, McMullin expressed interest in running, but he didn’t say if he was looking at campaigning as a Republican or an independent.
One thing is for sure, though: McMullin’s old bosses on Capitol Hill very much don’t want him joining their ranks under any circumstances. McMullin pissed off GOP members when he spoke to the Washington Post for a recent article and told the paper that at a June 2016 meeting, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that Donald Trump was being paid off by the Russian government. After McCarthy and Speaker Paul Ryan’s spokespeople denied the event took place, the Post told them there was a recording of the conversation, and they proceeded to unconvincingly argue McCarthy was just joking. According to the National Journal’s Daniel Newhauser, House Republicans suspect that McMullin secretly recorded that conversation and leaked it.