UT-AG: John Swallow will resign today or tommorow

[Zioneer]

So for context, from January of this year, Utah's current Attorney General John Swallow (Republican, elected in 2012) has been under fire, accused of a variety of corruption-related crimes that allegedly took place before and during his election including 1) helping to facilitate an attempted (and failed) bribe of Harry Reid, 2) giving legal advice to at least two different convicted fraudsters, 3) telling a entirely different fraudster that he could keep the fraudster out of jail if Swallow (and Mark Shurtleff, his predecessor as AG and former boss) got to use his yacht and villa, 4) campaign finance violations, 5) various accusations of "pay-to-pay", abetting the intimidation of another indicted businessman who fled to Canada, 6) a few other accusations I've forgotten the details of. And in at least two instances, there's been records of whatever accusation it is. And he's removed important data from all computers in the AG office while claiming that he had a catastrophic data loss. So he's basically a Nixonian crook.

And now, Swallow has finally been caught on a crime (campaign finance violations), and has resigned, taking affect December 3rd.

[tmthforu94]

No surprise - I knew he was a crook the second I laid eyes on him.

[RedSLC]

No surprise - I knew he was a crook the second I laid eyes on him.

No kidding. I thought that even his campaign pic looked suspicious.



This guy also ran against Jim Matheson in '02 and '04, almost beating him in the former year due to the gerrymandering imposed by the legislature.

[Zioneer]

No surprise - I knew he was a crook the second I laid eyes on him.

No kidding. I thought that even his campaign pic looked suspicious.

This guy also ran against Jim Matheson in '02 and '04, almost beating him in the former year due to the gerrymandering imposed by the legislature.

I actually have a theory about that; I think he was quietly corrupt before losing to Matheson, but that the shame of losing to Matheson just kind of broke something in his mind, and he stopped being careful about his corruption. I mean, he signed up with the extremely corrupt Shurtleff and was sloppy about all these meetings with fraudsters; he met at a Dunkin Donuts, for goodness's sake! So my theory is that he went nuts after his two Congressional losses and decided to raise money anyway he could, just in case he wanted to try again.

But apparently the election will not be invalidated (though the LG's office is recommending that); instead Governor Herbert will pick one of three candidates chosen by the Utah GOP Central Committee. And the criminal investigations will probably go on.

[Landslide Lyndon]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

[Zioneer]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

[Zioneer]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

The only thing that would make this a less than perfectly hilarious scenario is that the Dems don't have any funny names in Utah.

[Landslide Lyndon]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

Nah, I think Cox will name as his running mate some dude named Acker.
Who can run with a straight face against the Cox-Acker ticket?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

The only thing that would make this a less than perfectly hilarious scenario is that the Dems don't have any funny names in Utah.

NH Democrats got the jackpot with Dick Swett.

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

The only thing that would make this a less than perfectly hilarious scenario is that the Dems don't have any funny names in Utah.

NH Democrats got the jackpot with Dick Swett.

preach

[Badger]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

The only thing that would make this a less than perfectly hilarious scenario is that the Dems don't have any funny names in Utah besides Matheson.

(Cruelly) fixed.

[Zioneer]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

The only thing that would make this a less than perfectly hilarious scenario is that the Dems don't have any funny names in Utah besides Matheson.

(Cruelly) fixed.

Sadly true. Though we've got a couple of guys in Salt Lake County who could be decent candidates (by Utah standards) a few years down the line.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

With such a name he will be very popular in prison.

Obvious joke is obvious, but his first accuser was named Johnson, and the current LG is named Cox. So you can make as many jokes as you want.

But once he gets out of jail, he will seek the governorship with Lieutenant Governor Cox as his running mate.

Swallow-Cox 2020!

Nah, I think Cox will name as his running mate some dude named Acker.
Who can run with a straight face against the Cox-Acker ticket?

Cox-Zucker

[Rocky Rockefeller]

So who are some potential replacements? And How do they choose the replacements?

[Zioneer]

So who are some potential replacements? And How do they choose the replacements?

Well, according to the Utah Constitution, the state Central Committee of the party of the resigning AG (that'd be the GOP) chooses three names to send to the governor, and the governor must choose one of those three. The chosen appointee will serve until a special election in 2014 (presumably at the same time as the other 2014 elections)

Among the potential replacements are lawyer Sean Reyes, the guy who Swallow beat at convention (we don't have a primary-only system here). Reyes is considered particularly honest, especially when compared to Swallow, and is Hispanic, which some Utah Republicans will like (they have a thing for token minorities). He doesn't have the connections with the legislature that Swallow did though, which could hurt him.

A few other names include state senator John Valentine (an anti-alcohol zealot who makes prohibitionist Mormons look like alcoholics), state senator Steve Urquhart from southern Utah, who is known for sponsoring an anti-discrimination bill, or a multitude of obscure rural legislators. It could even be Brian Tarbent, the state adjutant general and acting AG in the short period between the resignation and the appointment.

Oh, and the Utah Democrats want to invalidate the entire 2012 election for Utah Attorney General and hold a new election right away (presumably to take advantage over anger towards Swallow). That idea won't go anywhere though. In any case, they've got two potential winning candidates for the special election: Weber County Attorney Dee Smith (who was the 2012 Democratic AG nominee), and Salt Lake District Attorney Sim Gill, who has gotten a great reputation for anti-corruption reforms and investigating Swallow. Both are up for re-election to their own offices in 2014 though, so neither might be the candidate.

[Zioneer]

So the election of John Swallow will not be invalidated, and a candidate chosen by the Republican Central Committee will be chosen to fill the AG spot until a special election in November 2014, at the same time as the Congressional elections. It'll be interesting to see how this affects the Congressional races (especially UT-04), and vice versa. One of the more popular suggestions is that the appointee be a placeholder who won't run in 2014. Democrats and some Republicans like the idea.