Two well-known Republicans have filed as candidates to be the next state Republican Party chairman.

Two other lesser-known Republicans have also filed for the office, being vacated by chairwoman Enid Greene at the June GOP state convention.

Steve Harmsen, former GOP Salt Lake County councilman, and Stan Lockhart, former Utah County GOP chairman and current IM Flash public affairs official, have both filed for the open chairman seat, state party officials said Tuesday.

Also filing for the office are Aaron Bludworth and Bill Conley, GOP staffers said. Any registered Republican can run for party posts, the deadline being Thursday at 5 p.m. Chairman, vice chairman, secretary, treasurer and national committee members will be picked by state GOP delegates in convention June. 9.

Harmsen said before he filed he asked Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office if there were any objections to his candidacy. "They said no, encouraged me, so I filed." Lockhart was also encouraged to run for the top post.

To both men, Huntsman was keeping his promise, made several weeks ago, that despite the longtime tradition of the next major GOP officeholder up for re-election picking the GOP chairman, Huntsman would not formally endorse any chairman candidate this year.

Lockhart is the husband of Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo. Like Harmsen, Stan Lockhart also has been active in GOP politics. He is currently one of the better-known lobbyists on Utah's Capitol Hill, routinely spending thousands of dollars yearly entertaining lawmakers.

Besides being a former GOP chairman in Utah County, Lockhart also served on the Provo City Council, a nonpartisan office.

"I've been a Republican activist all my adult life," starting with serving in the old Salt Lake City Commission in the early 1970s, said Harmsen. He ran for the U.S. House in the mid-1970s, losing by fewer than 1,400 votes.

Over the years he's run for several other offices, including Salt Lake City mayor.

After the change in Salt Lake County government from the full-time commission to the part-time county council, Harmsen won an at-large council seat, only to lose re-election to Democrat Jenny Wilson.

Harmsen said: "The key word in my chairman campaign is balance" — balance between the state and county parties, balance between the different elements of the state party. The state party has spent "an astronomical amount" of money in recent years trying to track down Republicans, set up data bases and "we have nothing to show for it except a big debt." (The party is about $150,000 in debt, Greene reports.)