Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Merrill Cook named state school board member Frances Hatch Merrill as his lieutenant governor running mate Wednesday.
Merrill said last week that she would not run again for the state board, saying that a legislative-approved board reapportionment that requires her to run again this year - even though she was elected two years ago to a four-year term - and forces her to bescreened by a special candidate-selection committee is wrong.
Cook and Merrill were both members of the state Republican Party. Cook sought various offices as a Republican before leaving the party in 1988 to run as an inde
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pendent against GOP Gov. Norm Bangerter. Cook got 21 percent of the vote.
Merrill served two terms in the Utah House as a Republican, 1982-86, and was the Salt Lake County Republican Party chairwoman 1988-89. The state school board is a non-partisan post, although Merrill brought her conservative views to that body, as well. Merrill is the younger sister of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Merrill was criticized by some fellow board members and others for endorsing Cook's gubernatorial candidacy earlier this year. Among other things, Merrill liked Cook's approach to education. The controversial endorsement led to a policy statement on endorsements by the board. Other board members have endorsed other gubernatorial candidates, but those endorsements don't identify the endorsee as a member of the Utah Board of Education. Merrill did a TV advertisement for Cook in which she was identified as a board member.
In picking Merrill, Cook said: "Frances Merrill is first and foremost a fighter for the causes in which she believes. As an elected member of the school board she knows we can improve education dramatically without raising taxes. . . . Frances Merrill, in running with me, is not abandoning her Republican ideals. My choosing her is an indication of my desire to include Republicans, Democrats and Independents in a Cook administration."
With Cook's choice of Merrill, it is a clean sweep for women as lieutenant-governor candidates so far. More than a month ago, Democrat Pat Shea picked Cache Valley resident Bobbie Coray as his running mate. Several weeks ago, Democrat Stewart Hanson picked state Rep. Paula Julander, D-Salt Lake, as his running mate.
Republicans Mike Leavitt, Mike Stewart and Richard Eyre have not named their running mates yet, although they must do so before or during the state GOP convention, June 26-27.