It’s been nearly four months since Rep. Jason Chaffetz stepped down from office early, setting off an unexpected and expedited special election to choose his replacement in the conservative 3rd Congressional District.
By Nov. 7, it will be over. Get those mail-in ballots ready, if you haven’t already filled them out. The three main candidates are Provo Mayor John Curtis, the Republican contender, who had a big lead in the latest poll, Democrat Kathie Allen and the new United Utah Party’s Jim Bennett.
Here is where they stand on five of the most talked about campaign issues, starting with the man who has overwhelmed all political discussion.
President Donald Trump
Curtis: Although he wrote in a “good friend’s name” instead of voting for Trump last year, Curtis wants the president to be successful and will work with the administration when he agrees with it. The mayor has maintained that he supports the Trump agenda on economics, taxes and defense, and that he ignores the president’s “distractions.” After a debate, he explained: “If you’re defining the Trump agenda as divisiveness, meanness, bullying, not respecting women and minorities, of course I abhor that.” He has used Trump slogans, such as “drain the swamp” in campaign advertising.
Allen: The first-time candidate decided to run for office after Trump was elected, feeling disappointed by his campaign and frustrated by his proposals. Allen has called the president sexist, racist and xenophobic. “He needs to be stood up to,” she said.
Bennett: The third-party contender has declared that Trump is “not a responsible chief executive.” He argues the president’s rhetoric is divisive and his use of social media inflammatory. Bennett was a Republican but left the party when Trump was nominated in the 2016 presidential race.
Gun control
Curtis: Having run a shooting-range company for 10 years, Curtis defends the Second Amendment as “a cornerstone of our democracy.” After the mass shooting in Las Vegas, he would like to see more conversations about whether law enforcement officers have sufficient training and resources, as well as how to better respond to possible warning signs that could stop future perpetrators. The mayor supports mental health screenings as part of the background check to purchase a gun.
Allen: During her 30-year career as a doctor, Allen said she’s seen people die from bullet wounds and it’s led her to champion “sensible gun control.” She supports banning bump stocks (which the Las Vegas gunman used to convert semiautomatic rifles into essentially automatic guns), involving more medical experts in the discussion on mental health requirements and working with manufacturers to make altering weapons more difficult. “I’m not interested in taking guns away,” she said.
Bennett: Since the Las Vegas shooting, Bennett believes the discussion on gun control has been divided by party. Billing himself as the independent and “honest broker” between both sides, his solution is a mashup of Republican and Democratic approaches, melding the constitutional right to bear arms with measures to ensure public safety. Bennett proposes a ban on bump stocks and other “conversion kits,” biometric locks on firearms that respond only to the owner’s touch and shutting down the “loophole” where buyers at gun shows skip background checks.
Health care
Curtis: The mayor has repeatedly criticized his party for not having a plan ready to replace Obamacare after years of promises: “We blew it.” Curtis supports free-market initiatives for health care. He’d like to see more innovative solutions, including using pretax dollars to pay for premiums, developing a $35-a-month plan for low-level coverage or crowdsourcing with citizens for more ideas. “The more government involvement,” he said, “the higher the expense and the longer we wait for service.”
Allen: Having run her own practice, Allen said she’s “uniquely qualified” to talk about medicine. The physician disapproves of Republican-led efforts to repeal Obamacare and supports Democratic plans for universal health care. “Health care is not a commodity,” she said. “It’s based on need. It’s not based on desire.” She jokes that conservative doctors in Utah have called her “a damn socialist” for that position, but she hopes to get for-profit incentives out of insurance.
Bennett: When his daughter injured her spinal cord in a ski accident, Bennett said he didn’t have time to weigh the best surgeons or the cheapest plans. “I would think that any kind of health care solution needs to recognize that if you have a serious traumatic injury, you don’t have time to be an informed consumer,” he said. His idea of health care reform would combine free-market initiatives with catastrophic coverage for worst-case scenarios.
Immigration
Curtis: The mayor took some heat for running and later removing two campaign ads on Facebook — one exhorting Congress to “build the wall” between the United States and Mexico and the other calling to “stop sanctuary cities.” Curtis clarified that he isn’t married to the idea of a physical barrier but wants to secure the nation in whatever way would “make us the safest.” He also recommends penalizing undocumented immigrants who commit multiple or serious crimes, assimilating individuals to “become loyal, productive Americans” and giving people a chance “to get right with the law.”
Allen: As the granddaughter of Armenian refugees, Allen has slammed the idea of a border wall — Trump’s oft-touted answer to illegal immigration — saying it “wouldn’t even work, doesn’t address the problem. I don’t even know why it was proposed.” She would also like to see protections for young immigrants facing possible deportation with the impending end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “Immigrants built this country,” she said during a debate.
Bennett: The United Utah hopeful also disavows a barrier between the United States and Mexico, saying there is “no more reprehensible element” of the Trump administration’s platforms. “A wall becomes a xenophobic symbol that does nothing to solve the problem.” Bennett does, though, commend the president for working with Democrats as they seek a legislative solution for DACA. He believes Utah is a beacon, having long welcomed immigrants stemming in part from its Mormon settlers, who came to the area after fleeing from discrimination.
Public lands
Curtis: The Antiquities Act has “a major flaw,” the mayor has said, in that there are no checks and balances on the president’s ability to name national monuments. He supports an initiative by Utah Rep. Rob Bishop to restructure the executive authority so that local and state political leaders would have approval over large designations.
Allen: The biggest problem Allen has with the calls to shrink Bears Ears National Monument is that “it’s insulting to native peoples and it’s a slap in the face to what they want.” She believes Republicans failed to protect the land and tribal leaders stepped up. Allen proposes increasing payments in lieu of taxes that the U.S. government could divvy out to local leadership to ease some of the tension over federal land ownership.
Bennett: The third-party competitor — and son of the late three-term Republican Sen. Bob Bennett — also believes the Antiquities Act needs to be reformed and welcomes the Trump administration’s plans to scale back the Bears Ears designation in southern Utah. The president, he said, has “far more power than intended” to name national monuments.