Candidate concedes mistake on GOP rules

A Salt Lake County GOP candidate for the Utah House now says he was mistaken about the intent of a Salt Lake County GOP officeholder who called him and asked if he was interested in dropping out of the District 35 race.

In his original posted comment on a Deseret News online article, Rob Alexander asked that GOP state chairman Stan Lockhart resign because of a number of conflicts of interest. Alexander then went on to write that he thought it wrong that a Senate district chairwoman, Carrie Towner, had called him and asked if he wanted to drop out of the intraparty race against Rick Taylor.

Alexander thought the phone call inappropriate at the time. Towner was not his district Senate chairwoman, and Alexander says he thought it was inappropriate for someone not above him in party hierarchy would call and suggest he drop out.

But Alexander says he now realizes that Towner mistakenly believed she was his Senate district chair, when in fact she was not. And so Alexander no longer believes her call was odd, since she believed she was his district chairman.

Considering Towner also called Taylor and asked if he wanted to drop out — to avoid a convention fight and perhaps even a primary — Alexander says he doesn't see where any laws were broken. Alexander apologized to Towner in a posting "for this misunderstanding getting escalated to the point it has."

Alexander faces Taylor in Saturday's Salt Lake County Republican convention. If one candidate gets 60 percent of the House District 35 vote, then he is the party's nominee. If neither get 60 percent, then Alexander and Taylor face each other in a late June GOP primary, the winner to face Rep. Mark Wheatley, D-Murray.