2 in running — so far — for No. 2 spot

In Utah politics, it's the closest thing to a marriage proposal — who a candidate for governor picks to be his or her running mate.

Gov. Olene Walker announced Tuesday that Lt. Gov. Gayle McKeachnie will be on her ticket this year.

And today, fellow GOP gubernatorial candidate Fred Lampropoulos will name his running mate. Sources tell the Deseret Morning News it will be Brigham City Mayor Lou Ann Christensen.

McKeachnie, 61, was tapped by then-Lt. Gov. Walker last November to take over her office when she replaced Gov. Mike Leavitt. When Walker jumped into the governor's race last month, she said the decision to be on the ticket was McKeachnie's, who served with Walker in the Utah House in the 1980s, and he was mulling it over.

On Tuesday, speaking from a new governor's office relocated from the soon-to-be-remodeled Capitol to temporary digs in a Capitol Hill office building, Walker said McKeachnie is the best lieutenant governor any candidate could ask for.

And McKeachnie — referring to the crowded GOP gubernatorial field this year — said he couldn't jump from a team "just because we're in overtime or in extra innings."

But McKeachnie isn't selling his eastern Utah farm by staying on. He knows the Walker/McKeachnie ticket still must survive the state GOP convention, where nine Republicans are seeking the party nomination, go on to win a likely Republican primary and then win again in the general election in November. So McKeachnie said he'll still keep his Vernal home and farm and bunk in a Salt Lake apartment until election results are in.

At or before the May 8 GOP and Democratic party conventions, candidates for governor must pick a running mate. Both conventions will confirm the lieutenant governor picks of the governor candidates whom the delegates advance to a primary or general election.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Scott Matheson Jr. is the only person on his party's ballot. So he has the luxury of naming his lieutenant governor running mate any time he wishes.

Walker and Lampropoulos are the first GOP candidates to announce their running mates.

So, when is it best, in a crowded candidate field, to announce a running mate?

Dave Hansen, Lampropoulos campaign manager, said the campaign had always planned to announce the lieutenant governor pick early in the process.