House seat up in air

PROVO — Republican leaders huddled Wednesday night trying to untie a legal knot that postponed the appointment of a new state legislator to replace former Utah House Rep. Jeff Alexander, R-Provo.

Party leaders went to bed Tuesday night believing Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. would choose between finalists John Curtis and Chris Herrod after one-on-one interviews scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

They woke up Wednesday morning to learn that they had overlooked a 2004 change in state law that took the decision away from the governor and was intended to leave it to local party officials.

The problem is that outdated Utah County Republican Party bylaws conflict with the fresher state law. The county party ran a convention-style election Tuesday night where Republican delegates in House District 62 narrowed a list of 10 candidates down to two: Curtis and Herrod. The bylaws say that if one of the finalists doesn't earn 60 percent of the vote on the final ballot, the two names go to the governor.

That is the legal tradition in Utah. However, the new state law changed the process, and county party leaders and several legislators involved in the election forgot about the change.

"It's been a rollercoaster," Herrod said. "I was told in the morning to be prepared to meet the governor in the afternoon. Then I was told I'd meet instead with state Republican Party chair Enid Greene, and she would make the decision. Then that was on hold, and now I have an appointment with her at 11 a.m. (Thursday)."

That meeting, too, might prove unnecessary, because the state law that caused Wednesday's kerfuffle wasn't meant to include Greene in the process, said Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove, who sponsored the bill three years ago.

Greene said a second election might be required. "Everything is on the table," she said.

The issue late Wednesday was what the phrase "party liaison" means in the law covering midterm vacancies in the Legislature. Earlier in the day, it was defined to mean Greene, the state party liaison to the lieutenant governor. Contacted by the Deseret Morning News late in the day, Frank said the law meant to refer to a county party liaison, although it doesn't clearly say so.

"It was my intent to have the local party, the party closest to the people — in this case the Utah County Republican Party — give one name to a county party liaison who would give one name to the governor, and the governor would make the appointment," Frank said. "That would keep the state party removed from the process. The government closest to the people works best for the people."