UT-Gov: State election officials said Monday that former Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman had submitted enough valid signatures to appear on the June 30 GOP primary ballot, an announcement that came on the final day that candidates could turn in petitions.
Businesswoman Jan Garbett, though, only handed in a total 21,000 of the requisite 28,000 signatures. Garbett filed a lawsuit the next day to get on the ballot, arguing that the state had not done enough to make it easier for candidates to collect signatures during the coronavirus pandemic.
Because Garbett decided to skip the April 25 virtual party convention, which is the only other way that candidates can reach the primary ballot in Utah, her campaign will be over if she doesn't prevail in court. Garbett is pitching herself as the one Republican contender who doesn’t back Donald Trump, though, so the former Democrat would have a difficult time winning the GOP nod no matter what.
Two other Republicans, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and former state party chair Thomas Wright, turned in their signatures earlier this year, and state election officials said several weeks ago that they’d each made the ballot. Over half of Huntsman’s petitions, though, were rejected in late March, and the former governor had only about two-and-a-half weeks left to collect the remaining 11,500 signatures. Social distancing made this task especially difficult, though the state took some steps to allow voters to sign petitions at home. In the end, however, Huntsman got the necessary signatures in time.
While Cox, Huntsman, and Wright are each guaranteed to be on the primary ballot, they’re also competing at the party convention. Four other Republicans, though, need to perform well with delegates the weekend after next if they want to be in the primary.
Former state House Speaker Greg Hughes announced in January that he would only go through the GOP convention route, while Salt Lake County Council chair Aimee Winder Newton said the following month that she would do the same thing because of the high cost of gathering petitions. Businessman Jeff Burningham was also collecting signatures, but he announced in March that he'd only compete at the convention because of the dangers of the coronavirus. Perennial candidate Jason Christensen is also restricting his efforts to the convention.
At least two, and potentially more, of those four campaigns will come to an end at the party gathering. State GOP rules say that, in races with three or more contenders, the convention may opt to either use multiple ballots or preference voting to gradually eliminate candidates from consideration; according to Utah Policy, the party has decided to use ranked-choice voting this year. If one contender ends up taking more than 60% of the delegate vote, they will be the only candidate to reach the primary ballot.
If, however, no one hits this threshold, then the two competitors left standing will advance to the primary. (Utah Democrats' rules work the same way.) While Cox, Huntsman, and Wright will reach the primary no matter how good or bad they do on April 25, they still may benefit from doing well at the convention and knocking out more of their opponents.
Utah Policy also reports that Burningham and Hughes have spent the most on advertising in the leadup to the convention: Burningham had deployed $673,000 so far to Hughes’ $294,000, while Cox was in third with $193,000 spent. While recent polls show Burningham and Hughes badly trailing both Huntsman and Cox in the primary, their advertising could help them appeal to the delegates who will be deciding their fate later this month.
