Long-time Sanpete recorder
elected to county commission
By Suzannne Dean
Publisher
11-5-2020
MANTI—Reed Hatch, who retired this year after nearly 30 years as Sanpete county recorder, was elected to the county commission Tuesday.
He replaces Steve Lund, who left the commission to run for the Utah House of Representatives and also won his election.
Hatch defeated Larry Smith, a Snow College professor who ran on the United Utah Party ticket. UUP is a Utah-based party that promotes middle-of-the-road candidates.
Based on unofficial results, Hatch got 8,765 votes to 2,479 for Smith. Those numbers translated to 78 percent for Hatch and 22 percent for Smith.
“I’d like to thank all of the supporters, all of the people, who got out and voted for me. I’m really impressed with the turnout,” Hatch said.
“Our county really does have a problem with zoning, with expansion, with all the people moving in, that we have to deal with.
“We have to have control over that growth. And we’ve still got to get jobs for our kids to be able to stay in the county.
“Hopefully with [Sen. Derrin Owens and Rep. Steve Lund] and the governor’s office…we can get jobs coming and get our kids to stay in the county.”
Smith said, “It was a completely clean campaign, and congratulations to my opponent.” He said he and his supporters gave a “full faith effort and came up way short.”
But he said one of the good outcomes was making people more aware of the UUP. He said the party plans to continue to field candidates and he believes eventually it will start winning races.
