Bennett, Collard in tight race for county commission, other races come out as predicted

BySuzanne Dean

SANPETE COUNTY COMMISSION SEAT A

Scott Bartholomew3,39273.02%
Brandon Armstrong1,25326.97%

SANPETE COUNTY COMMISSION SEAT B

Scott R. Collard2,10044.67%
Mike Bennett1,99242.37%
Vivian Kunz60912.95%

U.S. SENATE (AS OF MIDNIGHT TUESDAY)

CandidateSanpete CountyPercentage in Sanpete CountyStatewidePercentage Statewide
Mike Lee3,76177.45%214,92962.20%
Becky Edwards82216.92%102,22629.58%
Ally Isom2735.62%28,4168.22%

U.S. CONGRESS DISTRICT 4 (AS OF MIDNIGHT TUESDAY)

CandidateSanpete CountyPercentage in Sanpete CountyStatewidePercentage Statewide
Burgess Owens3,54073.21%44,95062.10%
Jake Hunsaker1,29526.78%27,43337.90%

            MANTI—Scott Collard, former mayor of Fountain Green, was leading Mike Bennett, Sanpete County Fair Board chairman, by 108 votes Tuesday in the only close race on the Republican primary ballot here in the county.

            All the other results were fairly predictable. Scott Bartholomew, incumbent county commissioner, was leading newcomer Brandon Armstrong by 73 to 27 percent.

            Incumbent Mike Lee got 77 percent of the Sanpete County vote and 62 percent of the vote statewide against moderate Republicans Becky Edwards and Ally Isom.

            In the U.S. Congress race in District 4, which formerly included North Sanpete north of Pigeon Hollow Junction but now takes in the whole county, Burgess Owens got 73 percent or the Sanpete County vote and 62 percent of the vote district-wide against Jake Hunsaker. (See accompanying table.)

            In the two county commission races, there is no Democratic opposition, so the primary winner is pretty much certain to take office.

            In the Collard-Bennett race for Seat B, a third candidate, Indianola Valley realtor Vivian Kunz, got just under 13 percent of the vote, which meant neither Collard nor Bennett won a majority of votes cast.

            Although the race was tight, Collard appeared to be in a good position to win. Sanpete County Clerk Sandy Neill said all ballots received by 8 p.m. election night were included in the election-night count.

            She predicted fewer than 50 votes would be added, including a few provisional votes and votes postmarked in time that had not been delivered by Tuesday.

Christy Larsen, who has been an election worker for 17 years in Sanpete County, retrieves ballots from carrying case shortly after 8 p.m. on Tuesday. She is holding ballots that came from the drop box near the Mt. Pleasant city building.

            In the U.S. Senate rate, Edwards billed herself as a bipartisan problem solver and Lee as an obstructionist who had accomplished little in office.

            She put forth an exceptional effort gathering signatures to get on the ballot. She had petition leaders in nearly every county and for months conducted signature drives every weekend in Sugarhouse Park in Salt Lake City. But in the end, the conservative wing of the Utah Republican Party carried the day.  

            Like Edwards, Hunsaker came across as more moderate than his opponent. He made an issue of Owens’ rejecting four opportunities to debate him, including a debate that would have been sponsored by the Utah Republican Party.

            In the end, Hunsaker made a credible showing for a newcomer. He got 27 percent of the vote in Sanpete County and 38 percent in the congressional district as a whole. Those percentages were higher than Edwards got against Lee.

            Notably, Sanpete County Republicans gave conservatives Lee and Owens bigger margins than the two candidates got in other parts of Utah.

            There are just under 10,000 registered Republicans in Sanpete County. Of those, 4,879 voted in the primary, which translated to 49.33 percent voter turnout.