Clark mayoral candidacy plan ticks demos

PROVO — Steve Clark, R-Provo says he will announce Monday that's he's running for mayor of Provo in the November election.

Clark was re-elected last year to the House of Representatives seat he has held since 2001. He plans to make the announcement at Provo's Kiwanis Park at noon. If he wins, he said, he will resign from the House. Republican delegates would then appoint a successor to finish out his term.

Clark's announcement has raised the ire of Utah County Democratic Party Chairman Richard Davis, who said Clark should have told the voters last November that he was considering a run for the mayor's seat.

"I doubt this was a sudden decision. Instead of the voters deciding, the Republican Party gets to make that decision (to replace Clark if his bid is successful)," he said.

Resigning mid-term has become a pattern among Republicans, because then the party, not the voters, get to choose the replacement, he said.

"We're tired of this kind of approach and we're calling them on it," he said.

Davis said he would like to see a change in the law requiring a special election to replace elected leaders who leave office before finishing their terms.

"Then the Republicans would think twice about it," he said.

Once a Provo city councilman and chairman, Clark said he wants to get back into local politics.

"It's time for a change in the mayor's position," he said a few weeks ago when he announced he was thinking about running. "The mayor's job is a service position, not a job or career."

Then he said, "I've always had a dream of running for mayor. It goes way back."

Clark isn't critical of current mayor Lewis Billings, who is nearing the end of his fourth, four-year term. No one else has ever served as Provo mayor more than 12 years, except for Abraham O. Smoot, who served six two-year terms from 1868-81, which ran slightly over 12 years. Billings hasn't yet said if he'll run again.

Clark's wife, Cindy, is on the city council, but doesn't intend to run for re-election in November.

Others testing the Provo political mayoral waters are Don Allphin, Lakeview North neighborhood chairman, and John Curtis, executive vice president of Action Target. Allphin hasn't officially declared his intentions, but Curtis has. Curtis ran for the state Senate in 2000.

Filing for the November election begins July 1 and ends July 15.

E-MAIL: rodger@desnews.com