Steve Handy selected to replace Kevin Garn in Utah Legislature

KAYSVILLE — Davis County Republican delegates have selected former Layton City Councilman Steve Handy to replace former Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn.

With 57 percent of the vote to Chris Crowder's 42 percent, Handy's first victory came when he was selected to fill the remainder of Garn's House term, which expires in January.

Garn represented Layton in House District 16 until he resigned March 13, two days after announcing to the Utah Legislature that he had been in a hot tub nude with then-15-year-old Cheryl Maher in 1985. Garn also paid Maher $150,000 in 2003 to keep the incident quiet.

"I won't embarrass you," Handy told delegates in a speech. "I won't let you down. I will remember that you are the people I represent."

Handy beat out Crowder, who is a Layton Christian Academy music pastor. He also defeated Davis Applied Technology College president and Layton City Councilman Mike Bouwhuis and software developer Tom Clay for the seat.

During the first round of voting to fill the remainder of Garn's term, Crowder and Bouwhuis were tied in second place. A coin toss broke the tie, eliminating Bouwhuis and leaving Handy in first place.

Then, following a separate vote to nominate one of four candidates as the Republican candidate in the November election, Handy won with 60 percent to Crowder's 39 percent.

That vote eliminated the need for a primary election for that House seat in June.

Shortly after the votes were tallied, Handy received phone calls of congratulations from House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, and from the House chief of staff. Handy learned he will be seated in the Utah House of Representatives this week.

Handy said he's gratified delegates selected him in both elections, because he can get to work right away.

"I'll have the rest of the year to get warmed up," he said. "Then I can hit the ground running."

County GOP officials were excited by Saturday's convention turnout at Davis High School, with 779 delegates in attendance out of 798 allocated to Davis County.

And those delegates brought some change to the county, which will have a new assessor in January. Davis County assessor James Ivie lost to challenger Dennis Yarrington, who removed his dress shirt during his speech to reveal a black T-shirt with the words "New guy" printed on the front and back.

Yarrington will run unopposed in November.