State Sen. Brent Richards lost his race for re-election without even making it out of the starting gate. And his controversial departure Saturday at the Salt Lake County Republican convention mirrored his tenure in the Senate.
Richards, a former Riverton City Council member and Libertarian Party member, was defeated by Rep. Mont Evans in the District 5 race. Evans got 84 percent of the delegate vote, eliminating Richards.Richards told the Deseret News after the vote that Evans had betrayed him personally and at one time had offered him $1,000 if he would run for Congress instead of seeking re-election to the state Senate. Richards considered the latter a bribe.
"Absolutely false," said Evans, a moderate Republican who's served in the House for 10 years.
Richards said that Evans approached him some months ago and encouraged him to run for the 2nd Congressional District. At the time, says Richards, Evans offered to raise or give him $1,000 for his congressional race. Richards adds that Evans made a personal promise to him that he would never run against him in his Senate seat, and he feels betrayed that Evans did.
"I was kind of blind-sided," Richards said. "We had an accommodation (that Evans would not run for the Senate seat) and he betrayed me. He doesn't know the true meaning of friendship."
Evans said that after he'd heard that others were encouraging Richards to run for the U.S. House, he also talked to Richards about it. "I didn't suggest it. I did say I'd help him run (for Congress) if he decided to do that. I said I'd help him, I never promised him $1,000. Money wasn't part of it," said Evans, who was clearly upset over Richards' statements.
"There was never any gentleman's agreement that I wouldn't run against him. In fact, during the legislative session (in February) we went to lunch and I told him I was considering running for the state Senate," Evans said.
"Am I bitter? No," Richards said. "I am just broken-hearted he decided to run against me."
"I'm sorry he's taking such a sour-grapes approach (to his loss). I guess that's life," said Evans. Evans faces no Democratic opponent in November's election.
Richards was not well-liked by some fellow Republicans. House Speaker Mel Brown wrote an endorsement letter for Evans. Richards often made controversial statements and was occasionally admonished by Senate President Lane Beattie for inappropriate statements.
A "report card" on legislators compiled by the Deseret News several weeks ago found Richards the least-effective senator, passing fewer of his bills than any other Senate member the past two years.
Richards' defeat was the major event of the county convention, which saw speeches by most major Republican officeholders in the state.
As speech after speech dragged on in the newly rebuilt Salt Palace, delegates took control of the convention.
County Sheriff Aaron Kennard, serving as sergeant of arms, made a floor motion that statewide- and congressional-candidate speeches be postponed and that delegates hear from the two County Commission candidates and immediately vote on them. "Let's suspend the agenda. We're having delegates walk out" of the hall and leave, Kennard said. Delegates cheered in response.
By the time delegate votes were finally announced, only one-third of the approximately 1,200 delegates were still on hand.
County Commission
GOP Commissioner Brent Overson won his party's nomination outright by eliminating newcomer Robert Politz in balloting by a 74 percent to 26 percent margin.
But Overson's battles with GOP County Attorney Doug Short and Overson's friendship with Democratic Commissioner Randy Horiuchi were discussed by some delegates and pointed out in at least one flier sent around the convention hall. The flier reprinted a picture of Horiuchi and Overson smiling together and listed a number of controversial votes in which the Republican and Democrat voted together.
Legislative races
Salt Lake County Republicans will have primary contests in one Senate race and four House races. Among those facing a primary is conservative Rep. David Bres-na-han, R-West Jordan, who garnered 58 percent of the delegates - not enough to avoid a runoff against challenger David Thompson. Thompson said while he's conservative, he can work with people. Bresnahan joked that he's Democrats' No. 1 target - "They want to get me, they call me that wacko conservative."
Another primary will feature Ronald Greensides, a former Democratic representative now running as a Republican, against Randall Wall in the House District 27 race. The winner will face Rep. Loretta Baca, D-South Salt Lake, who beat Greensides two years ago for the Democratic nomination.
In District 52, Dave Hogue and Summer Pugh will have a primary to see who fills Evans' House seat in Riverton. And in District 40, Dennis Lloyd and Richard Walsh will contend for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Reese Hunter, R-Holladay.
In the Senate, Robert Warnick and Raymond Poole will have a primary to earn the right to challenge Senate Minority Leader Scott Howell, D-Granite.
Several candidates avoided primary elections by garnering more than 70 percent of the vote. Incumbent Rep. Lamont Tyler, R-East Millcreek, defeated challenger Paul Walker 86 to 14 percent after a spirited caucus meeting in which he defended his voting record on abortion, gun rights and lobbyist disclosure.
Tyler said he voted against a late-term abortion bill because it was a bad piece of legislation, he supports local government over the federal government in Second Amendment issues and he opposed more stringent lobbyist disclosure because "I support less government, not more."
Rep. Orville Carnahan, R-Taylorsville, easily won the Republican nomination over Frank Strickland by a 97 percent to 3 percent margin.
John Hohlbauch defeated Steve Hengen 81 percent to 19 percent for the right to challenge Rep. Daniel Tuttle, D-West Valley; Gary Ott defeated L. Harry Fontaine 95 percent to 5 percent for the Republican nomination for the Salt Lake district now held by retiring Rep. Frank Pignanelli, D-Salt Lake City; Richard Smiley won 100 percent of the delegate votes in District 25 and will challenge Rep. David Jones, D-Salt Lake; and Kelly Cassady defeated Shannon Smith 86 percent to 14 percent and will challenge Rep. Kurt Oscarson, D-Sandy.
Congressional candidates
Although no votes were at stake, delegates gave embattled U.S. Rep. Enid Greene several standing ovations. Greene won the 2nd Congressional District seat two years ago. She's not running again, however, after blaming her estranged husband, Joe Waldholtz, for illegally stealing millions of dollars from her and his family and pumping more than $2 million illegally into her 1994 campaign.
"I made terrible mistakes (about whom to trust)," she said, "but I never broke my trust with you," she said.
Merrill Cook and other 2nd District candidates addressed a much-reduced convention (the voting already taking place and many delegates having left) to say he's glad to be back in the Republican Party. Cook ran as an independent against Greene two years ago. Other 2nd and 3rd District candidates were well-received, as was Cook. Congressional candidates' fate will be decided in the state Republican Convention held next Saturday in Cottonwood High School. If none of the congressional candidates gets 70 percent of the delegate vote, the top two vote-getters face each other in a June 25 primary election.