SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Chris Stewart's resignation from Congress sets in motion a series of events, including new election dates.
Now, voters in the 2nd Congressional District will have a primary on Sept. 5 — the day after Labor Day. But all Utah voters will have a new general election on Nov. 21, the week of Thanksgiving.
"Any city that’s running a municipal election will be impacted by those changes. We are changing it statewide, not just for CD2," Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, the state's chief elections officer, told FOX 13 News on Thursday.
The Utah State Legislature will meet in special session next week to finalize the special election and appropriate millions to cover costs for the election. Counties will now take over running the elections for cities.
"I don’t think we have a choice," Senate President J. Stuart Adams said Thursday. "I think whether it’s worth it or not, we have to get our congressman elected. I don’t think it makes sense to do next June."
Rep. Stewart, who has been in office since 2012, is resigning effective Sept. 15 because his wife is dealing with an undisclosed health issue. On Thursday, candidates for the special congressional election started filing campaign paperwork with the Lt. Governor's Office. On the Republican side, former state lawmaker Becky Edwards filed. So did former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, and Utah GOP National Committeeman Bruce Hough. January Walker filed with the United Utah Party.
But the change of election dates from Nov. 4 to Nov. 21 will now impact a lot of candidates in city council and mayoral races statewide.
"You have an extended timeline which means more money, more campaign expenses, you’re going to have to be turning out voters longer, having persuasion conversations for longer, paying your campaign expenses for a longer period time," said Gabi Finlayson, a senior partner at Elevate Strategies, a campaign firm working with municipal candidates now. "For these municipal candidates, they don’t raise a lot of money, right? That timeline does have an impact for these people."
Finlayson described the last 24 hours with the new election date as "chaotic" as campaigns scrambled to re-adjust to new deadlines and print new mailers, re-think campaign events and even cancel post-election vacations.
"Municipal elections and candidates? Your city council people, your mayors, they have so much more of an impact on your day-to-day life than who your congressperson is," Finlayson said. "It is a little frustrating to see all of this voter confusion and having to raise more money, try to spend more time, not to mention have campaign staff and election officials work through the holidays and extend their timelines for you know, one person’s election in a very slim majority."
Lt. Gov. Henderson acknowledged it wasn't an ideal situation for some candidates, but it was the best option they had.
"We're absolutely not moving these elections to accommodate one, except making sure that these elections are conducted in a way that’s fair, that people can participate in and that gives the constituents in the 2nd Congressional District assurance that they will have a voice in Congress," she said. "We think that’s of utmost importance. There’s a lot of ways to do this. We thought through them multiple times and spent countless hours on this. We really do believe this is the best option."
Sen. Adams said the interest in replacing Rep. Stewart may drive more turnout for normally quiet municipal elections.
"I think the sentiment from the constituents I've talked to was it needs to be done this year," he told FOX 13 News. "Whether it’s worth it or not? It had to be done."
