Utah Democrats are determined to force Rep. Joel Ferry off the November ballot to give themselves an opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of almost certain defeat.
SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Democrats are trying to force Republican state Rep. Joel Ferry off the November ballot in House District 1 so they can snatch victory from the jaws of almost certain defeat in the upcoming election.
“If Mr. Ferry won’t step down from his seat and have his name removed from the November’s ballot,” threatened Democratic Party Chair Diane Lewis, “we will make the lieutenant governor do it for him.”
Ferry is currently serving as acting Director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, after being nominated for that position in June by Gov. Spencer Cox. But that posting is only temporary until he is confirmed by the Utah Senate.
In the meantime, Ferry is retaining his seat in the Utah House and his name remains on the ballot for the upcoming election in November.
Joshua Hardy, the Democratic candidate for the District one seat, is crying foul.
“Mr. Ferry is clearly no longer eligible to serve in the Legislature since he accepted Gov. Cox ‘s appointment and began to work for DNR,” Hardy said in a statement released Thursday by the state Democratic Party. “Yet he insists he can sit in two branches of government at the same time because he isn’t taking his legislative salary.
“His action are not only unconstitutional, they are also fundamentally undemocratic and unfair to voters.”
On Thursday, Lewis’ legal counsel sent a letter to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office asking that Ferry be disqualified as a candidate and removed from the November ballot.
In July, the governor’s office argued that Ferry’s dual role was not unconstitutional because he is only accepting compensation for his DNR post. Neither Ferry nor Cox have so far replied to the Democrats’ new threat of legal action.
While keeping mum on the issue, the Republican strategy is obvious.
If Ferry remains on the ballot, it seems certain that he will win re-election in November. Then he could resign after being confirmed by the Senate for the DNR post, giving the Republican Party in Box Elder County the opportunity to hold a special election to replace him with another Republican.
“We Democrats believe voters should pick their legislators,” Lewis said, “not a small groups of extremist Republican delegates.”
If Ferry were forced off the ballot now, however, Hardy would likely win the 1st District seat by default as the only other candidate on the ballot.
Republican Karson Riser filed as a write-in candidate in the 1st District last week, but his candidacy seems a long-shot affair.
Legal precedent seems to favor the Democrats in this dust-up.
In their letter to Henderson, Democrats pointed to a similar situation that arose in 1978 when Sen. Edison Stephens was appointed to a state position by then Gov. Scott Matheson, a Democrat. In that case, the Office of the Attorney General advised Matheson that Utah’s constitution prohibits a person from simultaneously holding a position in both the legislative and executive branch of state government.
The question remains, however, whether Ferry is “officially” holding his state cabinet post prior to being confirm by the Senate.
Utah law allows party official to swap one candidate’s name for another on the ballot for a long list of reasons, including death, physical or mental disability, improper filing or to run for president or vice president. None of those conditions apply to Ferry’s case.
Ferry has represented District 1 in the Utah House of Representatives since 2019. That district includes the Cache County communities of Clarkston, Cornish and Newton as well as significant portions of Box Elder County.
He had served as the chairman of the House Business and Labor Committee and the Legislative Water Development Commission.
Ferry was also a member of the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee; the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee; the Medical Cannabis Governance Structure Working Group; and the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee.
Ferry has resigned from all those committee posts prior to assuming the role as acting head of the DNR.