Scott Burns came so close in 1992 - he lost by 5,353 votes out of almost 723,000 cast - he just had to try again.
Burns, 38, filed Friday to challenge incumbent Attorney General Jan Graham, his opponent in 1992 for the seat vacated by the retiring Paul Van Dam. And like 1992, Burns' campaign will focus on violent crime."The main issue I ran on in 1992 was crime and gang violence, and I said at that time that Utah was in a position to be proactive instead of reactive," he said. "I am concerned that if Utah does not have an attorney general that can deal with violent crime issues, the Wasatch Front is going to
be another Detroit, another Chicago or another Los Angeles."
Burns, who has been the Iron County attorney for 10 years, believes his experience as a criminal trial lawyer qualifies him to be attorney general. "I truly believe Utah's attorney general should be a person who has experience in Utah's courtrooms, and in dealing directly with law enforcement, victims and citizens. I don't think you can appreciate criminal justice issues if you have never tried one jury trial," he said.
Graham's administration has focused extensively on child abuse and domestic violence issues, but Burns said the vast majority of such prosecutions are by county attorneys, not the attorney general's office. And the attorney general's initiatives should not be duplicative of other elected and appointed officials.
Burns wants to redirect the resources of the attorney general's office to the issues he says Utahns are most concerned about, in particular violent crime. He said he would make violent crime the primary focus of the office "to send one simple message, that if you are a gang member and you are involved in violent crime, you are going to be caught and you will be prosecuted and you will be going to jail."
"I am going to see that resources are directed to law enforcement and prosecutors and to correctional facilities to deal with this issue," he said. "We are reading the headlines everyday about kids dying in gang-style shootings, but I don't see AG standing up and saying we have a state of emergency. But we do along the Wasatch Front. People are afraid to walk the streets and drive the highways in Salt Lake City, and that is a shame."
Born in Salt Lake City, Burns has lived in Cedar City since the age of 2. He grew up just down the street from the family of Gov. Mike Leavitt. He attended California Western Law School in San Diego, graduating in 1984. He is married and has one daughter.
Like 1992, Burns faces an uphill battle to win the seat. Polls indicate the public generally approves of Graham, who has the benefit of incumbency, name recognition and a political war chest of about $250,000.
"Those kind of polls are soft," he said. "The real poll will be in November. They said the same thing in the last election, that I was from southern Utah, that I was too far behind, that I couldn't win. But we almost pulled it off."