With State Senator Mike Kennedy running for the Congressional District 3 seat, a special election to replace him has already started. This will only take effect if Kennedy wins. This will be voted on by Utah County Republican delegates in a special election on Nov 2nd.
Brady Brammer
Brady grew up in Orem and received a law degree and a Masters in Public Administration from BYU. He works in business litigation and has served in the Utah State House of Representatives since 2019. His district covers parts of Highland, Alpine, and Cedar Hills. He enjoys working with delegates, reporting to city councils, and mentoring others. He is currently the chair of the House Rules Committee, where he says many bills die.
Brady is helping Utah establish a business chancery court, which would focus on large business disputes to get them through the court system much faster. It would be similar to what Delaware has. He said that Delaware’s court is heavily used, and you see almost every large dispute go through it.
Brady has also worked to restructure the Utah Lake Authority and hopes to see a 3-4x improvement to the lake. He expects to see more local control as it switched from state control and local money to local control and state money. Brady also helped pass a bill requiring the father to pay half of any medical bill a pregnant mother has, if she chooses to pursue it. He hopes this will make it less scary for the mother and reduce abortions.
During Covid, Brady fought against state government restrictions and ongoing emergency power declarations, saying we listened to epidemiologists but didn’t trust sociologists enough. He argued that masks weren’t that effective as people didn’t wear them correctly, such as far too long. Brady developed restrictions on the Governor’s ability to declare emergencies and worked to repeal all emergency declarations.
He is also very concerned with our judges, saying “that the political persuasion of the people of Utah versus the bench has the highest delta in the country”. Being in the state senate would allow him to participate directly in the judicial nomination process.
He supports amendment D and doesn’t approve the state supreme court’s decision to remove it from the ballot. He said that the misleading language came from the house and senate leadership, and their staff. It could have been worded better. Despite that, it isn’t the job of the court to preempt or deny debate in the public forum.
Brady said that he brings a lot of experience to the senate and other candidates would take a few years to learn how to get things done. Conservatives are needed to help others have the courage to be conservative. And you need effective people in the position.
When asked about which books he is reading or had recently read he said he just finished rereading 1984 by George Orwell and is currently reading “Truths” by Vivek Ramaswamy.
Diego Carroll
Diego is a civil engineer with three degrees from BYU, including a MS is Civil engineering and an MBA. His focus has mostly been with roads and transit planning, along with some work with water. Some examples of projects he has worked on are Sardine Canyon and the US-40 – I-170 connection. His wife, Staci, serves on the American Fork City Council. He wants to take a more analytical approach to government, basing decisions on facts.
Diego thinks that rapid growth is the top issue at all levels of government from the state down to the local level. Government shouldn’t incentivize it though. We need somebody that understands the technical parts of things like water rights and infrastructure.
Diego wants to represent all of his constituents and knows to be careful of just listening to the loud voices. You need to do your homework and reach out to people. Delegates and cities are both good sources to get a better picture of what is going on.
Diego believes that Amendment D was done too quickly and the legislature should have spent more time to come up with a better solution. He does support the idea though. He supports all of the above energy and said that conflict without contention is good.
When asked what he is currently reading, he said Tress of the Emerald Sea, by Brandon Sanderson, and is rereading How Will You Measure Your Life, by Clayton M. Christensen, which is one of his all-time favorites.
Eric Vernon
Eric Vernon
Eric has been an attorney for 30 years. He received his law degree from BYU and has worked for several different companies, including Bain Capital. He currently works for AllClear as their general counsel. He also teaches business ethics at BYU as an adjunct professor, on occasion. Now is a good time personally for Eric to get more involved in politics.
Eric feels he is the best candidate due to his experience, that he isn’t afraid to be a strong person and challenge ideas, and that it is time for a fresh face. When asked what legislation he would have changed, he talked about a recent law change to limit some non-compete agreements to one year. He said it was too simple and that intellectual property needs to be protected, especially with management and above. He gave an example of an employee that was leaving the company and wanted to get some personal stuff off of his laptop before turning it in. When asked why the laptop wasn’t remotely wiped, which is a very common practice with company issue laptops. He didn’t know.
Eric also said that he thought the decision to continue operating the coal power plant in Delta was a step backwards. He is an all of the above energy supporter and doesn’t oppose the use of nuclear power.
He also said that his top issue was election integrity. Eric wants to find a compromise on SB54, which allows for a signature path. He laments that confidence in our elections has been lost and wants to find ways to restore, but didn’t have specifics. He does want to focus on facts. Returning civility to discourse is also a key focus, saying it is the only path forward.
His third top issue is education, calling it the key to helping our kids make it through a world of disinformation. We need a robust educational system or we will have a Tik-Tok generation. He isn’t sure the best source of funds but thinks we may want to divert some money from roads.
When asked what he is reading he said The Company by John Micklethwait and Adrian Woodridge.
Bill Lee
Bill did not respond to several requests to be interviewed.
2022 Utah County Commission Seat B Candidates (Republican) – American Fork Elections is the article this author wrote when he ran for reelection as a County Commissioner (which he lost)
Van Broderick
Van did not respond to several requests to be interviewed.