Washington County Republicans fight over Utah House seat left open by lawmaker's resignation

Things are getting weird in the Washington County Republican Party's effort to find a nominee to run for Utah's House District 73.

One candidate is protesting the party's proposal to hold a special election among party leaders less than a month before the June 28 primary election.

Another candidate, one with a long history of serving in party leadership, appears to be the guaranteed winner of that special election because he is running unopposed.

And the third candidate, sitting Utah Rep. Travis Seegmiller, has announced he was moving outside the district and would be resigning his seat. But he still hasn't officially withdrawn from the 2022 race and isn't responding to questions about whether he still intends to run, leaving party leaders to actively ask voters not to vote for him.

Special election

Washington County GOP leaders scheduled a special election for June 1 to pick someone to finish the rest of Seegmiller's current term, which lasts the rest of the year and is technically still referred to as District 62 (the district was redrawn after the 2020 census and designated as District 73 for the 2022 election).

But by Friday, with nearly two weeks to go before the election would take place, the winner was already known.

Colin Jack, a longtime member of local GOP leadership and a current candidate in the 2022 race to take Seegmiller's seat, was the only one to apply for the position and thus is guaranteed to win the special election, according to Lesa Sandberg, the chairperson of the Washington County Republican Party.

More: Utah Rep. Travis Seegmiller announces plans to resign months ahead of 2022 election

Jack, the chief operations officer for Dixie Power, is in a three-way race with Seegmiller and Nina Barnes, a former Cedar City Council member and the vice-chair of the Utah Board of Higher Education for the District 73 race.

The WCRP invited both Jack and Barnes to file for the special election and sent out a press release calling for qualified individuals to put their names in the race. But Barnes declined to run for the special election and has contested its timing, arguing that it shouldn't be taking place right before the primary.

“By seeking to fill a seat that has not yet been vacated merely one week prior to the mailing of primary ballots to registered Republicans in Washington County, party insiders have created an avenue to inappropriately influence a sacred democratic process,” said a press release sent out by Barnes’ campaign.

Sandberg and the WCRP pushed back against those claims, saying they’ve followed the proper procedures as outlined in the WCRP bylaws, which state that the party has 30 days to fill vacancy once the party receives notice of the vacancy — not when the vacancy becomes official.

“[A WCRP] liaison shall, before 5 p.m., within 30 days after the day on which the liaison receives notice of said vacancy, submit to the governor the name of the individual whom the party selected in accordance with the party’s bylaws to serve as the interim replacement,” reads Section G, Article X of the WCRP bylaws.

A June 1 primary meets the 30-day deadline, according to party officials, and it was convenient since the WCRP had a meeting scheduled for that day anyway.

“The Washington County Republican Party Executive Committee felt using this meeting additionally for the Special Election would be timely, allowing a name to be submitted to the Governor in the allotted timeline, being only 8 days before the deadline,” according to the WCRP press release.

Barnes then said the WCRP's press release was "woefully inaccurate" and remained steadfast in her position that the special election should happen after Seegmiller officially resigns.

"This decision shouldn't be made simply because we already have a meeting scheduled. It's too important," Barnes said. "At this point, I don't believe there is a vacancy because Rep. Seegmiller has not resigned."

Barnes argues that the WCRP is interpreting the bylaws incorrectly and in a way that hasn't been done by previous leadership, referencing as an example the way the party replaced then-county commissioner Denny Drake when he resigned in 2014 to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

More: Iverson takes oath as new county commissioner

Drake announced his plan to leave months before he officially left office on July 1, and WCRP leadership at the time waited until that day to hold a special election. Victor Iverson, who still sits on the commission today, was appointed to finish Drake's term.

Uncertainty with Seegmiller

The WCRP also announced in its press release that it was put in an “unwanted position” by Seegmiller’s “unfortunate” resignation.

Although Seegmiller announced he would resign his duties for the rest of his current term, it was unclear what he plans for his future. Seegmiller informed Republican leadership that his resignation was due to the fact that he was moving out of the House District 62 boundaries for an  “unexpected opportunity” for his family.

But even with his resignation, Seegmiller is still listed as an active candidate in the District 73 race and — as of May 20 — hadn't clarified to the WCRP whether he plans to withdraw, according to Sandberg.

Now, the WCRP is asking local Republicans to not vote for Seegmiller.

“Unfortunately, the ballots for the upcoming primary election have already been printed with Representative Seegmiller’s name on it," according to the WCRP release. "At this point, anyone who votes for Representative Seegmiller in the primary election will be a wasted vote."

Seegmiller hasn’t responded to multiple requests from The Spectrum to clarify his status for the upcoming primary.

Negative sentiments around appointments run deep in this legislative district, with Seegmiller himself having been appointed by party leaders in a special election in 2018. Seegmiller replaced former lawmaker Jon Standard after Standard resigned shortly after a woman who claimed she had been his prostitute during his time in office shared her story with the tabloid press. Standard had held the District 62 seat since 2012.

After Seegmiller was appointed in 2018, he easily went through the primary and general election process in 2020 to secure his first election. He faced neither a primary challenge nor a challenge from a Democrat in the general election.

Seegmiller had faced his own controversy in recent months, having reached an agreement earlier this spring with prosecutors over an alleged poaching incident that took place in 2021 where Seegmiller pleaded to a charge of taking wildlife while trespassing. Two other counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm were dismissed.

Rep. Colin Jack

Jack says that he filed to run in the special election because he feels the “most qualified” for the position believes he could fill the gap left by Seegmiller’s resignation. He also said he thought being the presumptive replacement for Seegmiller in District 62 “wouldn’t hurt” his campaign for District 73, since it would boost his name recognition.

But, Jack said, with the election happening on June 1 and the primary on June 28, he would only get elevated status for 27 days and the same names will appear on the primary ballot no matter the outcome of the special election.

So far in the primary election process, Jack has been the leading candidate in the House District 73 race. At the county convention, he received 56% of the delegate vote and Seegmiller got 44% while Barnes did not participate, choosing instead to collect signatures and petition to get on the primary ballot.

With Barnes not participating in this special election, it provides another opportunity for Jack to talk directly to Republicans without any challengers since last week neither Barnes or Seegmiller participated in a debate hosted by the WCRP. Seegmiller didn’t say why he didn’t attend and Barnes said she couldn’t attend since she had a prior commitment due to her role on the Utah Board of Higher Education.

Check out: Republican primary debates feature new faces, discussions on water, growth and education

With 2022 being an election year, Seegmiller's current term is set to expire in January. But even with the interim term lasting less than six months, there still are duties that need to be fulfilled because state lawmakers have an active interim period of committee meetings that go from May to November, according to Rep. Lowry Snow, who is serving in his final months of elected office in District 74.

During the interim period, lawmakers meet for monthly committee hearings to explore and educate themselves on legislative issues in Utah and vet potential bills before the 45-day session, according to Snow. This interim period also has several partisan caucus meetings where lawmakers can debate and discuss issues, he said.

A state lawmaker also has the responsibility of showing up to and participating in any special legislative sessions that are called for during the interim period.

Mail-in ballots for the partisan June 28 primary election will be sent to voters beginning June 7, according to the vote.utah.gov website. But since Republicans are the only party with primary elections in Washington County and the party only allowed registered members to participate, only Republican voters can cast ballots.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments made by Barnes in a later interview.

Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Follow on Twitter @seanhemmers34. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe here: http://www.thespectrum.com/subscribe. 

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Washington County GOP race gets weird ahead of upcoming primary