New United Utah Party pushing to make deadline for 3rd District special election


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SALT LAKE CITY — The new United Utah Party submitted petitions Thursday to become an official political party in the state, but probably not in time for the special election in the 3rd Congressional District.

State Elections Director Mark Thomas said it usually takes a couple of weeks to verify the 2,000 signatures of registered voters needed to be a recognized political party. The office would have to confirm all the names before Friday at 5 p.m. — the candidate filing deadline for the special election — for the party to run a candidate under its label.

"If there's a way, we'll try to make that happen," Thomas said.

Richard Davis, United Utah Party chairman, said the party will have a candidate for the 3rd District race regardless of whether it's registered. The person, whom he declined to identify, intends to make a campaign announcement Friday morning, he said.

The candidate could campaign under the party banner but would appear on the ballot as unaffiliated.

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Davis, a BYU political science professor, and Jim Bennett, the son of the late GOP Sen. Bob Bennett, announced the formation of the new party Monday. They're trying to attract disaffected Republicans and Democrats as well as independents to what they describe as a centrist party.

"We think that we are going to be a very good alternative for those people who are frustrated for various reasons with their two parties, with Republicans and Democrats," he said. "We also think there's a lot of independents out there who have been independents because they haven't felt comfortable in either of the parties. They see them as too extreme."

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Dennis Romboy

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