PARK CITY -- Doug Owens tells FOX 13 he is taking steps to prepare for a rematch against Congresswoman Mia Love.
"Definitely considering it," Owens said in an interview after a brief speech Saturday at the Utah State Democratic Party Convention.
Speaking to the crowd of several hundred delegates, Owens pointed out that he lost by 7,511 votes in his Fourth Congressional District race against Love -- and noted that 15,000 registered Democrats in that district stayed home.
"If I ran again, would you help me out?" he asked the crowd to the sound of cheers.
At Saturday's state party convention, organizers tried to energize the crowd for the upcoming 2016 elections -- promoting mail balloting and making changes to their party system to become compliant with Senate Bill 54, the so-called "Count My Vote" compromise law.
Noticeably absent from Saturday's convention was embattled Rep. Justin Miller, D-Salt Lake City. He is facing accusations of stealing more than $30,000 from the campaign of Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. In turn, Miller has leveled corruption accusations against McAdams, his former boss. Both men have denied wrongdoing.
In a statement, Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said the matter was still being investigated by law enforcement.
"The case has not been submitted to our office for screening," Rawlings told FOX 13. "We're making no assumptions one way or the other, except the presumption of innocence. We'll assess once we get the case."
While Democratic party leaders have been largely silent on the matter (many House Minority Caucus members declined to comment on Miller), party chairman Peter Corroon made his strongest statement yet in an interview with FOX 13.
"Time has passed and we haven't seen any exonerating information," he said of Miller.
Corroon stopped short of calling for Miller to resign.
"From our point of view, if the information's there to exonerate yourself from the allegations, show it to everybody and be done with it," he said. "If you've done something wrong, face up to the facts."
Miller told FOX 13 earlier this week he had no intention of resigning from office.
