CACHE COUNTY – The three-part contest to select a replacement for former Cache County Attorney K. Taylor Sorensen has already begun.
The first stage of that process will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 10, when the Cache County Council will select an acting county attorney to handle the routine work of that office. Traditionally, that temporary appointment will go to some current member of the Cache County Attorney’s office staff.
The acting county attorney will serve until an interim county attorney is appointed, according to County Clerk Bryson Behm.
That process will involve the Cache County Republican Central Committee, who will meet on Saturday, Mar. 7 at Sky View High School in Smithfield. They will select up to three candidates whose names will be forwarded to the Cache County Council to assume the role of interim county attorney for the remainder of Sorensen’s unexpired term of office until the end of 2026.
The assembled members of the Cache GOP will also conduct a non-binding straw poll for those recommended candidates on Mar. 7.
If there are three or fewer candidates for interim county attorney, Behm explains that their names will go directly to the members of the county council.
The County Council will then hold a public interview process for those recommended candidates and appoint one of them as interim county attorney.
Finally, Cache County voters will pick a permanent county attorney during the midterm election balloting in November.
In January, Sorensen resigned his county post effective Feb. 8 to return to private practice based primarily on financial considerations and his stated need to adequately support his young family here in Cache County.
Given that advance notice, the Cache GOP immediately posted the notice of that vacancy on Feb. 8 on its website and county attorney staffer Dane Murray has already responded.
Murray has worked at the Cache County Attorney’s Office on and off since May of 2015. During that time, he has served as a deputy county attorney, chief prosecutor and as interim county attorney from November of 2002 until January of 2024, when he briefly left the office to pursue opportunities with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
If he is again appointed as interim county attorney, Murray pledges to make his office “the premier prosecuting agency in the state of Utah.”
During the filing period for candidates in the upcoming 2026 election that closed Jan. 8, local attorneys J. Brett Chambers and Chris Daines joined Murray in signaling their intent to replace Sorensen as permanent county attorney.
Chambers is a member of the local law firm of Harris, Preston & Chambers, LLC, where he previously made news representing Cliffside residents opposed to a controversial conditional use permit (CUP) granted by Logan City for a 12-person residential treatment facility in the upscale neighborhood.
Daines is associated with the local firm of Daines, Thomas & Smith Attorneys, where he specializes in family, commercial and real estate law.
Additional candidates seeking to serve as interim county attorney are advised to indicate their interest in that post by sending an e-mail to County Republican Chair Natalie Levi at chaircachegop@gmail.com.