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SALT LAKE CITY — Mark Shurtleff has held Utah's top law enforcement job since 2001 — the longest Attorney General office holder in the state's history.
Now Shurtleff's chief Deputy — Republican John Swallow — and Weber County attorney and prosecutor Dee Smith are looking to take over; each pledging to keep partisanship out of the office.
At the taping of this week's Sunday edition, stark differences between the two candidates quickly emerged, mostly when it comes to taking on court fights on federal land rights, and reversing federal health care.
"In a perfect world, politics wouldn't be involved in the law enforcement side of things," Swallow said. "But I am a conservative, and we do live in a conservative state, and we do have policies that are different than the administration federally, for example."
Swallow said if he took office, he would execute the law and not give preferential treatment to groups that have contributed to him.
Smith said battles over federal land wouldn't be fought with his in office.
"There are precious financial resources that fund that office," he said. ‘We have to be aware of that."
Another important difference between the two is money. To date, Swallow has raised $1.2 million for his campaign, $250,000 of which was from a super PAC run by Karl Rove. Smith has received a mere of $47,000 by comparison.
"I don't like the fact, extending out of this race, that we're spending so much money on these races," Smith said. "I just think of the places that money could go …"
