SALT LAKE CITY — The special election to fill the seat left empty by former Rep. Jason Chaffetz in the U.S. House of Representatives will be held Tuesday.

Take a look at the top three candidates vying for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District seat and the platforms on which they’ve based their campaigns:

John Curtis

John Curtis sews up 3rd District GOP victory; Herrod concedes

Additional results released Friday in the 3rd Congressional District primary election nailed down victory for Provo Mayor John Curtis, prompting the runner-up in the three-way race to concede.

Provo Mayor John Curtis, 57, will be running as the Republican candidate for the seat. He is a former Utah County Democratic Party chairman and ran for the Utah Legislature twice, once as a Democrat and once as a Republican. He has based his campaign on the following issues, according to his website:

• Jobs and economy: The current corporate tax rate is too high, Curtis says, and the U.S. is losing business to countries with lower rates. He believes nothing will help the economy more than tax relief and regulatory reform for individuals and businesses.
• Health care: Curtis believes the U.S. has not had a free market health care system, but that government involvement has distorted the market. Provo’s mayor does not believe Republicans will be able to roll back Obamacare within the next four years but hopes to lower “skyrocketing health care costs and lack of access.”
• Gun control: Curtis supports Americans’ right to bear arms but believes the government needs to keep more diligent records of individual mental health problems to ensure guns don’t end up in the hands of criminals or the mentally ill. All guns should be sold with proper storage and safety devices, he says. Any gun modifications that turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, like bump stocks, should be reviewed by Congress.
• States' rights: Curtis believes in a limited federal government with well-defined tasks. He believes most power should be given to the states since each state has different needs. The federal government should guarantee basic human rights and leave other policy decisions up to state governments, he says.
• Washington dysfunction: Curtis disapproves of the government’s control of trillions of dollars for which companies can lobby. He also believes Congress needs to stop trying to pass laws that force one demographic to pay taxes while another doesn’t, and that a constitutional amendment should be passed to force the government to stay within budget. He disapproves of career congressmen who stay elected too long because of gerrymandered districts.
• National security: Curtis sees defense as the nation’s No. 1 priority.
• Immigration: Curtis believes the U.S. should make immigration easier for those that will be self-sufficient and help build the economy. He also believes the nation should secure its borders, be tough on those who commit crimes and give immigrants a chance to “get right with the law,” something Curtis calls restitution, but not amnesty.
• Public lands: The Provo mayor believes we should protect the land while also allowing access for grazing, recreation, hunting and energy development. Those best suited to manage the land are those close to it, he says.
• Tax reform: Curtis believes the government can reform taxes with three changes:
• Simplicity: Lower rates, fewer brackets, elimination of special loopholes, deductions and exemptions
• Efficiency: Corporate welfare and special-interest handouts in the current tax code create an unfair and two-tiered system
• Predictability: There should be no new burdens on taxpayers

Kathie Allen

Utah Democrats tap Cottonwood Heights MD to vie for Chaffetz' seat

Utah Democrats overwhelmingly nominated a well-funded Cottonwood Heights doctor Saturday to represent them in the 3rd Congressional District special election.

Kathie Allen, 64, will be running as the Democrat candidate for the seat. She is a physician currently living in Cottonwood Heights. She worked for a California congresswoman out of college but otherwise has no political experience. She held leadership roles with the Salt Lake Medical Society and the Utah Medical Association. She has based her campaign on the following issues, according to her website:

• Substance abuse and cannabis: Allen believes law enforcement agencies and mental health workers should have all the federal funding they need to prevent drug addiction and rehabilitation, and that primary care doctors should be trained to treat addiction. She also believes medical cannabis could help people stop using opioids.
• Health care: Health care is a right, and a universal health care solution would reduce administrative costs, Allen says. In Medicare, 99 percent of expenditures go to providers and patients while only 1 percent goes to administrative overhead. Administrative costs for for-profit health care are nearly 20 times higher due to multimillion-dollar CEO salaries and dividends to investors, according to Allen. She believes there should be a publicly funded option for health insurance in areas with no private insurers or only one private insurer. Each state should have a state-run public option and a national backup option. She is strongly against privatizing Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.
• Climate change: Climate change is real and the nation should not ignore the facts, Allen says. She believes a carbon tax may be the best solution to aggressively combat climate change.
• Taxes, regulations and a balanced budget: Tax cuts for the wealthy are unnecessary and trickle-down economics does not work, Allen believes. She supports decreasing the corporate tax rate and unburdening small businesses with too many regulations. She also hopes to see a balanced budget.
• Prescription medication: Allen believes prescription drugs cost too much and the people who need them most are usually those who can least afford them. Allen has a list of 20 policy changes she believes will fix this problem. The complete list can be found here. Changes include re-evaluating the shelf life of drugs and allowing re-importation of drugs from cheaper countries.
• Foreign policy: The American people must be defended from attack, but the use of military force should be a last resort, Allen says. We should first seek negotiations and then exhaust other nonviolent strategies before resorting to military force, she says.
• Gun control: Allen supports the right to keep and bear arms but calls for a ban on bump stocks and other kits that turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons. Everyone who buys a gun should go through the same background check, and the government should work with manufacturers to make it harder to remove a serial number as well as embrace technology like biometric locks.
• Energy: The easiest transition to renewable energy for Utah would be to take advantage of biofuels and rural energy grant programs for farmers and ranchers, Allen says.
• Education: With 75 percent of economy jobs in trades and crafts, the government should put shop classes and other practical courses back in schools, Allen says. She will also work to bring down student loans and supports art education and comprehensive sex ed programs.
• Women’s issues: Women should have equitable representation and pay in the workplace, and all parents should have paid family and medical leave, Allen says. She believes abortions should be easily preventable, legal and rare. When they must happen, they should be provided by well-trained medical professionals.
• Public lands: Allen believes we should protect monuments like Bears Ears.
• Immigration: Allen favors the Utah Compact, a declaration of five principles to guide Utah’s immigration policy and keep families from being torn apart by overly aggressive immigration enforcement policies. She also supports the legal protection for those who have resided in America for years with their children.
• LGTBQIA+: Utah loses far too many LGBTQ youth to suicide and needs better support programs and better education to stop the trend, Allen says.
• Voting rights: Gerrymandering is specifically designed to disenfranchise specific groups, Allen says. She believes there is a fair way for districts to be drawn, especially in Utah.

Jim Bennett

New United Utah Party leader Jim Bennett announces bid for Chaffetz's seat

Jim Bennett, executive director of the newly formed political party United Utah, announced Friday he is running for the 3rd District seat in Congress being vacated by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

Jim Bennett, 49, will be running as the United Utah Party candidate for the seat. Bennett is a freelance copywriter, marketer and nonprofit program director living in Sandy. He has run campaigns for GOP and Democratic candidates. He has based his campaign on the following issues, according to his website:

• Public lands: Bennett believes the Antiquities Act gives the president too much power and is due for reform and wasn’t the appropriate vehicle to protect Bears Ears. Bears Ears should be protected, he says.
• Climate change: The climate is changing and human activity is having a significant impact, Bennett says. However, the proposed “solutions” are more symbolism than substance and act as a regressive tax on the poor.
• Economy: Wealth must be created before it’s distributed, Bennett says. He believes the government attempts to give everyone “a bigger piece of the pie” can do more economic damage than good.
• Education: The country needs a federal education rule that isn’t one-size-fits-all, Bennett says.
• Entitlement reform: Unless the government makes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid sustainable, they will “collapse and take the global economy down with them,” Bennett said.
• Free trade: Bennett believes President Donald Trump’s protectionism and open hostility to free markets poses a significant threat to national and global economic growth.
• Health care: Obamacare is collapsing, Bennett says, but Republicans have not proposed anything better. Repealing without replacing is a “terrible idea,” he said.
• Immigration: Bennett supports the Utah Compact, a declaration of five principles to guide Utah’s immigration policy.
• LGBT rights: Bennett supports Utah’s 2015 anti-discrimination law and its balance of LGBT rights and religious freedoms.
• Abortion: Bennett is pro-life but believes abortion should be available in cases of rape, incest and when there is serious threat to the mother.
• Gun control: Bennett supports the Second Amendment but believes guns should not be available to convicted felons or the mentally ill. Most gun control legislation, while well-intentioned, does not solve the problems it is designed to solve, he says.
• Tax reform: Taxes should be designed to raise revenue from the government, not to pursue social engineering and other policy goals, Bennett says. He supports lower rates and closing loopholes.

• Jason Christensen — Independent American Party
• Joe Buchman — Libertarian
• Sean Whalen — Independent/Unaffiliated

Mayoral elections

Several major cities in Utah are also holding mayoral elections with notable candidates, including:

• Logan: Holly Daines vs. Brian Seamons
• Provo: Michelle Kaufusi vs. Sherrie Hall Everett
• Sandy: Kurt Bradburn vs. Tom Dolan
• West Valley City: Ron Bigelow vs. Karen Lang
• City of South Salt Lake: Mark Kindred vs. Cherie Wood
• Murray: [Daniel C. Snarr](<https://www.facebook.com/VoteDanSnarr/ target=>) vs. D. Blair Camp

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