Stephens works for ex-rival

Utah House Speaker Marty Stephens has gone to work for his old GOP gubernatorial rival Fred Lampropoulos.

"Actually, I started today," Stephens said Monday.

He will not resign his seat in the House but will leave the Legislature when his term ends in December.

Stephens, R-Farr West, is the new vice president of business development for Lampropoulos' Merit Medical, a NASDAQ-traded multimillion-dollar medical supply firm located in South Jordan.

Lampropoulos and Stephens, two of eight candidates running for governor this year, were eliminated in the May 8 state GOP convention.

Stephens, who left Zions Bank last year as he prepared to run full time for the governor's post, denied a rumor just before the state convention that Lampropoulos might offer him a job.

"I have never spoken to Fred" about a job, Stephens said in early May.

"That's true," said Dave Hansen, who ran Lampropoulos' multi-million-dollar campaign over the last year.

"We got to be pretty good friends during the campaign," Stephens said Monday.

In a southern Utah radio appearance and debate, Lampropoulos said Merit Medical was always looking for good businesspeople and he mentioned Stephens as someone who could run a large, growing firm.

But Lampropoulos never spoke to Stephens about a job before the convention, both Hansen and Stephens said.

"And it doesn't matter now, anyway, because they are both out of the race," said Hansen.

Stephens said he and Lampropoulos met for breakfast about 10 days after they lost in the convention.

"We met to talk about how to push conservative ideals in Utah. And the breakfast ended with Fred offering me a job. We both took a few weeks to consider it, and I accepted last week," Stephens said.

In a statement, Lampropoulos said Stephens is responsible for identifying merger, acquisition, distribution and technology opportunities for the company "His broad experience and abilities will be beneficial as Merit expands," he said.

Nolan Karras and Jon Huntsman Jr. emerged from the state GOP convention, which also saw the end of the political career of GOP Gov. Olene Walker. Neither Lampropoulos, Stephens nor Walker have endorsed anyone yet in the GOP gubernatorial primary race.

"I have no future political plans at all," Stephens said. "But you never say never, I suppose. I'll serve out the rest of my term" as speaker and as a House member from northern Weber County "and then retire."

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