Utah Attorney General Election, 2014

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Utah Attorney General Special Election

Primary Date: June 24, 2014

General Election Date: November 4, 2014

November 4 Election Winner: Sean D. Reyes

Incumbent prior to election: Sean D. Reyes

Utah Attorney General Special Election Attorney General

The Utah Attorney General special election took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Sean D. Reyes (R) was appointed in December 2013 by Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert. Reyes won in a special election against Democratic candidate Charles Stormont, Libertarian Party candidate Andrew McCullough, Constitution Party candidate Gregory Hansen and independent candidate Leslie Curtis. Reyes won election to the remaining two years of Swallow's term with a regular election scheduled for November 2016.

Republicans won the previous four races for attorney general by at least 18 percent, according to results in the past elections section. Reyes and Stormont argued issues including ethics, same-sex marriage and the state's anti-polygamy law during a debate in October as summarized in the debates section.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. In Utah, state law allows parties to decide who may vote in their primaries.^[1] Check Vote.Utah.gov for details about upcoming elections.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

Candidates[edit]

General election[edit]

Sean Reyes - Incumbent ^[2]
Charles Stormont - Lawyer in the Utah Attorney General's office^[3]
Andrew McCullough - Libertarian candidate^[3]
Gregory Hansen - Constitution Party candidate^[2]
Leslie Curtis - American Independent Party candidate^[2]

Results[edit]

General election[edit]

Attorney General of Utah, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Sean Reyes Incumbent	63.1%	355,275
	Democratic	Charles Stormont	27%	151,967
	Libertarian	Andrew McCullough	4%	22,333
	Constitution	Gregory Hansen	3.3%	18,722
	Independent	Leslie Curtis	2.7%	15,108
Total Votes				563,405
Election results via Utah Lieutenant Governor

Race background[edit]

Special election circumstances[edit]

See also: John Swallow's controversies

In 2012, Deputy Attorney General John Swallow was elected state attorney general. Due to ethics and elections law investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Utah State Legislature, Swallow resigned on December 3, 2013.

In his place, the governor appointed Republican Sean Reyes, who took office on December 30, 2013. Reyes came second behind Swallow in the 2012 Republican primary for attorney general. Reyes ran to retain the office in a special election on November 4, 2014. He ran unopposed for the nomination.

Reyes's major-party opposition in November was Democrat Charles Stormont, a lawyer in the Utah Attorney General's office. Three other candidates faced Reyes and Stormont in November: Libertarian Andrew McCullough, Constitution Party candidate Gregory Hansen and American Independent Party candidate Leslie Curtis. Reyes won election to the remaining two years of Swallow's term.

Debates[edit]

October 1 debate[edit]

Sean Reyes (R) and Charles Stormont (D) discussed the office's recent past, same-sex marriage and polygamy during a debate in Provo. Reyes said that when he was appointed to the attorney general's office, he "inherited an office racked with scandal and controversy." His solutions to these issues included improving salaries and requiring supervisors to participate in detailed evaluations to ensure integrity. Stormont countered that the office remained largely the same as when John Swallow held the office and promoted an ethics hotline that would allow citizens to blow the whistle on corrupt elected officials. Both candidates agreed on campaign finance limits and that they would not take campaign donations from sources that could create conflicts of interest.^[4]

Reyes and Stormont also discussed their stances on defending the state's anti-polygamy law and same-sex marriage ban. Reyes argued that the state needed to appeal a federal court's decision to strike down part of an anti-polygamy law, while Stormont called an appeal a waste of money over a law that is largely unenforced. Stormont also argued that the state should not waste time appealing higher court decisions on gay marriage on the expectation the U.S. Supreme Court reject any appeal. Reyes stated that the attorney general has a duty to defend the state's laws in higher court.^[4]

Campaign finance[edit]

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of $624,376 during the election. This information was last updated on March 27, 2015.^[5]

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate	Office	Result	Contributions
Sean Reyes	Utah Attorney General		$466,215
Charles Stormont	Utah Attorney General		$151,355
Andrew McCullough	Utah Attorney General		$6,417
Gregory Hansen	Utah Attorney General		$355
Leslie Curtis	Utah Attorney General		$34
Grand Total Raised			$624,376

Past elections[edit]

2012[edit]

Attorney General of Utah General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Dee W. Smith	30.1%	269,893
	Republican	John Swallow	64.6%	579,118
	Libertarian	W. Andrew McCullough	5.3%	47,347
Total Votes				896,358
Election results via Utah Lieutenant Governor (dead link)

2008[edit]

Attorney General, 2008
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Mark Shurtleff Incumbent	69.3%	650,147
	Democratic	Gregory G. Skordas	26.6%	249,492
	Libertarian	W. Andrew McCullough	4.1%	38,321
Total Votes				937,960

2004[edit]

Attorney General, 2004
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Mark Shurtleff Incumbent	68.5%	607,393
	Democratic	Gregory G. Skordas	28.3%	250,820
	Libertarian	W. Andrew McCullough	3.2%	28,202
Total Votes				886,415

2000[edit]

Attorney General, 2000
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Mark Shurtleff	57.5%	435,998
	Democratic	Reed. M Richards	39.5%	299,683
	Libertarian	W. Andrew McCullough	2.9%	22,273
Total Votes				757,954

Voter turnout[edit]

Political scientist Michael McDonald's United States Elections Project studied voter turnout in the 2014 election by looking at the percentage of eligible voters who headed to the polls. McDonald used voting-eligible population (VEP), or the number of eligible voters independent of their current registration status, to calculate turnout rates in each state on November 4. He also incorporated ballots cast for the highest office in each state into his calculation. He estimated that 81,687,059 ballots were cast in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, representing 35.9 percent of the VEP.^[6] By comparison, 61.6 percent of VEP voted in the 2008 presidential election and 58.2 percent of VEP voted in the 2012 presidential election.^[7]

Quick facts

• According to PBS Newshour, voter turnout in the 2014 midterms was the lowest since the 1942 midterms, which took place during the nation's involvement in World War II.^[8]

• Forty-three states and the District of Columbia did not surpass 50 percent turnout in McDonald's analysis.

• The three states with the lowest turnout according to McDonald's analysis were Texas (28.3 percent), Tennessee (28.6 percent), and Indiana (28.8 percent).

• Maine (58.5 percent), Wisconsin (56.5 percent), and Colorado (54.5 percent) were the three states with the highest turnout.

• Twelve states increased voter turnout in 2014 compared to the 2010 midterm elections.^[9]

Note: Information from the United States Elections Project was last updated on December 16, 2014.

Key deadlines[edit]

Ballotpedia reports[edit]

To learn more about developments in these races, check out the following news articles from Ballotpedia:

• Filing deadline report: Utah Attorney General special election

Recent news[edit]

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Utah + attorney + general + elections"

See also[edit]

• Utah Attorney General
• State executive official elections, 2014

External links[edit]

Suggest a link

• Office of the Attorney General of Utah

Footnotes[edit]

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