Last June, Shurtleff stripped Hill of her title of special assistant to the attorney general as she advised the Utah State Office of Education on school vouchers.

In the letter removing her status, Shurtleff wrote "You have fostered an adversarial and hostile relationship between the State Board of Education and this office by giving advice contrary and inconsistent with advice given by me and others in the Attorney General's Office."

Shurtleff calls the voucher debate a nonissue, since he later gave Hill limited authority to continue advising the education office on the matter. He doesn't think it will play into this year's race.

"I didn't take a position on vouchers," said Shurtleff, a Republican who is running for his third term.

Hill, who is running as a Democrat, said she wants to see more than one voice in the Attorney General's Office, something that she said was missing during the voucher debate.

"What the top lawyer needs to do is listen to both sides," she said. "They need to make decisions based on the legalities, not what a political party wants."

She said she feels she has a good chance against the Republican incumbent, partly because of the energy being generated by national campaigns.

"Utahns are frustrated with what happened last year and what continues," she said. "Obviously we need to have other voices being heard in our state government."

Hill graduated from law school in 1995, and has worked in various professions since. She was an editorial writer for The Salt Lake Tribune and a teacher at Judge Memorial High School. Most recently, she worked as an attorney to the state education office.

Shurtleff said he "welcomes" the challenge.

"In the past I didn't get to debate the issues," he said. "But now the public will be able to hear more and it's always about people making a choice."

smcfarland@sltrib.com