Utah Attorney General Jan Graham may not be retiring from politics after all.
Graham, Utah's only statewide elected Democrat, said Monday that the encouragement and support she is receiving -- along with seeing so much anger against GOP state leaders over a new law that strips her office of civil legal authority -- has her "rethinking" her decision not to run for re-election next year."I've gotten literally hundreds of letters and telephone calls from people simply outraged by what they (Gov. Mike Leavitt and GOP legislators) have done. They (those letters and phone calls) are telling me I should stay and see this fight through. There is an expectation building" that she won't leave office, Graham said.
And not only is Graham thinking about running for attorney general in 2000. She said she is "serious" about weighing all of her options, including a run against Leavitt -- a race previously considered suicidal for any serious Democrat.
Leavitt has an 85 percent approval rating in one of the most Republican states in the nation. He has around $500,000 in his political action committee and the ability to raise five times that much for a full-blown campaign. While Leavitt hasn't announced a re-election bid in 2000, it's generally assumed he will run for a third term.
She said she'd decide by the end of this summer whether she'll run for attorney general again, run for governor or retire. She hasn't ruled out a U.S. Senate bid, but she said she doubts she'd challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who appears on the road to running for a fifth, six-year term in 2000.
"Is there a serious possibility that I or any Democrat could run against Mike Leavitt" and win in 2000? Graham asked. "There is concern out there about this (new law) . . . which has created a dramatic situation in Utah. Is it enough that a Democrat could run a real competitive race? I don't yet know the answer to that. But I'm wondering" that maybe the political climate in Utah is changing, she said.
State GOP chairman Rob Bishop said Tuesday that as a party Republicans welcome anyone to run for any office. But he doesn't believe Graham could win re-election as attorney general.
"We have had several good (AG) candidates talk to us, and we'll likely recruit a couple more. (Graham) has personalized this whole issue (of the duties of attorney general). It's somewhat sad. By doing so she's trivialized her office, herself and her constitutional duties," Bishop said.
Before, during and after the 1999 Legislature passed a bill along party lines that would strip the Attorney General's Office and elected county attorneys of their power to make civil legal decisions, Graham said she wasn't going to seek a third, four-year term as attorney general in 2000.
As GOP legislative leaders realized their push to pass HB139 was being viewed publicly as a move to get Graham, they amended their bill to not take effect until Jan. 1, 2001.
Because Graham had said she didn't plan to run again, the new law wouldn't apply to her, GOP leaders said, and so couldn't be interpreted as an attempt to punish her or her office.
Graham has angered leading Republicans for some time. She was seen as an obstacle in their attempts to tighten state abortion law, and Graham refused to file a friend-of-the-court brief in a Vermont case over same-sex marriage as Leavitt and GOP legislative leaders wished.
The battles became personal last fall.
When national tobacco companies reached agreements with various state attorneys general over lawsuits, Graham refused to let Leavitt attend a victory press conference in the Utah Capitol, telling him privately that he hadn't supported the lawsuit as she'd asked.
(Leavitt denies he failed to give support to the lawsuit, citing early newspaper stories that he says shows he always supported suing the major tobacco companies).
Adding insult to injury was Graham's radio advertisements that ran early in the 1999 Legislature that criticized GOP lawmakers for not earmarking some of the $836 million in tobacco settlement cash for anti-smoking campaigns. Republicans said some of that money will go to fighting smoking, but that it's too early to make those decisions, since the money hasn't arrived.
Sponsor of HB139, Rep. Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, admitted to the Deseret News that he originally drafted his bill to only apply to county attorneys. But in reviewing the matter with other GOP leaders and Leavitt late last year, it was decided to include the attorney general in the mix.
The same argument that applies to county attorneys -- that county commissions should be making final civil legal decisions, not an independently elected county attorney -- applies to the attorney general/governor relationship as well, GOP leaders say.
In any case, HB139 was introduced late in the session and hustled through on basically party-line votes. Only one GOP House member and one GOP senator voted against it. All Democrats voted no. Leavitt signed the bill into law. Graham says she'll sue before the Utah Supreme Court, contending the bill is unconstitutional, but hasn't filed the suit yet.
Graham says she's reconsidering her decision to step out of politics "because so many people seem to be counting on me" to at least try to stop "the troubling trend" of Republican dominance and arrogance in Utah. Graham is the only statewide elected Democrat; the House and Senate are heavily Republican.
She spent around $800,000 on her 1996 re-election effort, which saw her win easily, 53 percent-to-46-percent, over Iron County GOP attorney Scott Burns. A check of her 1998 campaign account shows she has $65,000 in cash. She said her May 5 "Law Day" fund-raiser should net her $150,000. A $200,000 war chest would be a good start to a race in 2000.