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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday defended his handling of an increasingly contentious special election called after U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz's surprise decision to resign.
Facing a fresh round of criticism from lawmakers and a new lawsuit from the son of a late senator, Herbert said his plan is legally sound and similar to previous Utah elections as well as those held in other states.
Herbert's plan calls for an August primary election, something Utah started including in each general election in recent years, instead of limiting the choice of a party nominee to a small group of party delegates.
The governor said Thursday that the winner of the special election will likely hold the seat for a number of years so the best way to replace Chaffetz is by giving the largest number of voters a say.
"It was important to me, at least, that the voice of the people allowed to be heard," Herbert, a Republican, said during his monthly news conference taped at KUED-TV.
Some Republican lawmakers, by contrast, had previously considered a plan that would only allow delegates to choose the party's candidate, a key decision in Chaffetz's overwhelmingly GOP district.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers lobbed criticism at Herbert earlier this week, saying the governor took on their role by deciding the election's timing and rules. Though they haven't spelled out what they'd do differently from Herbert, lawmakers said this week that the governor overstepped his bounds and entered murky legal territory.
The U.S. Constitution and Utah law say that if a U.S. House seat becomes vacant, the governor will call a special election. But the law offers few additional details.
The power struggle is the latest dust-up in the special election that drew an early field of nearly two dozen contenders has already weathered another lawsuit from a hopeful who unsuccessfully challenged an in-person candidate filing requirement.
The state was hit with a new lawsuit on Wednesday from Jim Bennett, son of the late U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett, who wants to get on the ballot with his new political party.
Herbert backed the state's ruling that there wasn't time to verify Bennett's United Utah party ahead of the election and said he doesn't expect the suit to derail the election.
Chaffetz made a surprise announcement in April that he would not run for re-election and later said he would leave office June 30 to spend more time with his family.
The field vying to replace him has narrowed, but still includes an unusual three-way race on the Republican side between the delegate choice of former state lawmaker Chris Herrod and two signature-gathering candidates: Provo Mayor John Curtis and Tanner Ainge, a son of Boston Celtics general Danny Ainge.
The winner of that race will face Democratic physician Kathie Allen in November.
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