2 want back in House — all the way to the top

Two veteran former Utah House GOP leaders — each out of office for more than four years — are hoping to make comebacks this year.

And Kevin Garn and Mel Brown aren't just interested in being rank-and-file members of the Legislature. When the opportunities arise, both want back into House leadership — where for a time they were two of the most powerful politicians in Utah.

Garn, 51, first elected in 1990, was the House majority leader, in line to be speaker, when he resigned in the spring of 2002 to run for office in the 1st Congressional District. He lost the

Republican primary to U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, a former Utah House speaker.

Brown, 68, retired in 2000 to become a lobbyist. Elected in 1986, Brown was speaker from 1995 to 1999.

Garn is running for his old Layton-based House district.

Brown moved six years ago from his old Midvale district to Coalville, where his family has operated a dairy operation for years, and seeks office in his new district.

The GOP incumbents in both districts are stepping out of office, but both Garn and Brown will face challenges from Republicans who filed against them.

When Garn and Brown filed for the House this year, rumors sprung up on Capitol Hill that, if elected, both men would make moves on leadership positions — or at least try to gather similar-thinking conservatives around them to form an immediate power base.

Garn said, in his case, that is not going to happen.

"I wouldn't presume that I could move into leadership right away. At some point, yes, I'd like to be speaker," Garn said.

He was on that road when he left to run for Congress.

"In hindsight, a path I shouldn't have followed," he said.

Brown's road to power in the House may be a bit more rocky, in part because he has already been speaker and in part because of his past political problems.

He was caught up in a lobbyist/personal scandal in the summer of 1998. He was seeking not only re-election to his Midvale district but planned to run for a third term as speaker. He won re-election but got out of the speaker's race the day of the House GOP caucus vote, realizing he couldn't win the top post again. An internal ethics investigation later cleared Brown of any official wrongdoing.

He stayed nearly two more years but filled his time as a back-bencher who sometimes threw stones at then-Majority Leader Garn and then-House Speaker Marty Stephens.

This time around, if elected, he said he would arrive with much more humble aspirations and not immediately seek a leadership post. And if he decided to seek leadership later, he would be fine with any post.