State Sen. Karen Hale is Democrat Scott Matheson Jr.'s lieutenant governor running mate.
Matheson, unopposed in his party in seeking the governor's seat once held by his late father, Scott M. Matheson, made the announcement Wednesday afternoon.
He admitted he decided to name Hale before Saturday's state Democratic convention, where she must be confirmed by delegates, because local media will be paying more attention Saturday to the highly contested races in the state Republican convention.
It's time for his campaign to be a little more visible, Matheson said from his Sugar House campaign headquarters.
Hale, 45, brings six years experience in the Utah Senate, where she is liked and, like all the minority Democrats, tolerated by the majority Republicans. She was also her party's lieutenant governor candidate in 2000, when former U.S. Rep. Bill Orton headed the Democratic gubernatorial ticket.
The Salt Lake City resident was rumored to be on the edge of resigning her Senate seat three years ago when a teenage daughter was killed in an ATV accident. She said Wednesday that the loss is "a hard challenge, with me every day." But, she added, she's actually working harder in her public service because of it.
"I've come to believe (that public service) is the best way to honor her life," Hale said.
Hale is a native Utahn. She and husband Jon are the parents of five children. She graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor's degree in mass communications and at one time was the publisher and editor of Parent Express, a news magazine for Utah families, a news release said.
Both Matheson and Hale said their campaign over the next seven months will be education, education, education.
"We've discussed education, support for students and teachers, for six years," said Hale, who sits on the Senate Education Committee. "Enough talk. It's time to do something."
But when questioned, Matheson said he does not support a tax hike for education, nor does he support tuition tax credits for parents who send their children to private schools. "Through education — from kindergarten to continuing adult education — you drive economic development," he said, adding that tax growth from economic development helps fund education.
In addition to her Senate education assignment, Hale co-founded the Coalition for Quality Public Education in 1998, a nonpartisan group of legislators, educators, parents and business and community leaders advocating funding Utah's public education system.
Hale doesn't bring much geographic balance to the Matheson ticket.
But Matheson said he's not writing off rural Utah by picking a fellow Salt Lake County resident to run with him.
"My roots are in rural Utah," said Matheson, whose ancestors are from southern Utah. "We're going to visit, campaign and run all over the state."
Early public opinion polls shows Matheson has a shot, even though Utah is heavily Republican.
"The Democratic Party has not been competitive" in a gubernatorial election "in 16 years," he added. But it will be this year.
In 1988, former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson lost to incumbent GOP Gov. Norm Bangerter by 2 percentage points in a three-way race with independent Merrill Cook.
Utahns have not elected a Democratic governor since Matheson's father won a second term in 1980. The elder Matheson died in 1990 of a rare cancer, which he might have contracted being exposed to fallout from open-air nuclear testing in southern Utah in the 1950s.
This is Scott Matheson Jr.'s first run for public office. His younger brother, U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, holds the 2nd Congressional District seat.
Scott Matheson said he'll officially take a leave of absence from being dean of the University of Utah Law School later this month. He can return to his post if he loses the race. Likewise, it's a no-cost race for Hale. She is in the second year of her second, four-year term, so she doesn't have to give up her Senate seat to run.
Scott Matheson said that in the Senate Hale has been an advocate for tobacco prevention, teen driver safety and primary seat belt enforcement.
However, Hale has not been able to convince the majority Republicans to make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense. You can only get a ticket for non-seat belt use if a police officer pulls you over for some other moving violation.
She was successful in persuading lawmakers to establish a statewide donor registry and a donation check-off fund to maintain the registry.
Hale is also a member of the Envision Utah Steering Committee, a group focused on growth management, and the chairwoman of a coalition backing a pedestrian and biking trail through the Salt Lake Valley known as the Parleys Creek Corridor Trail.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com