This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah might not have the high profile favorite sons running for president like it did in 2012 with former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and adopted Beehiver Mitt Romney, the eventual Republican nominee, but it has some colorful entrants into the fray this time around, nonetheless.

Romney of course stirred the Republican presidential pot and brewed rumors he might emerge at the GOP national convention on a white horse and save the day with his public condemnation of front-runner Donald Trump recently, but that didn't seem to go very far among the pundits or party faithful.

Then, as usual, Utah got mud kicked in its face after the much ballyhooed Fox News debate scheduled for Salt Lake City Monday was canceled because Trump said he didn't want to come here.

But, hey. We've still got some presidential timber here. Most people just haven't paid attention.

First there is Cody Robert Judy, a declared candidate for president.

Judy is a prolific blogger, has written a book and his most prominent endeavor currently is a lawsuit he is trying to get before the U.S. Supreme Court declaring that Barack Obama is not legitimately president of the United States because he wasn't born in the country.

Yep. He's still banging that drum when even Trump has given up on it. Judy regularly sends out notices on his blog with "breaking news" about the lawsuit. Nothing has happened, of course. The breaking news is whenever he files a new motion.

This isn't the first time Judy has run for office. In 2002, he ran for an open Utah seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2004, he ran for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Bob Bennett.

In 2008, he ran for President of the United States as a write-in candidate in Utah.

More interestingly, before Judy envisioned himself as leader of the free world, he was a self-proclaimed profit of God.

In 1993, Judy charged the stage at Brigham Young University's Marriott Center during a fireside with Howard W. Hunter, then the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He grabbed Hunter and held up a package that he said was a bomb that he threatened to detonate unless Hunter read a letter Judy handed him declaring Judy to be the next Mormon prophet. Hunter refused to read the letter and Judy was eventually subdued by members in the audience. He was sentenced up to 15 years at the Utah State prison and was paroled in 2000, shortly before he began his political career.

Then there is Kyle Kopitke.

He is a Flint, Mich., resident who is running for president as an independent because, he says, it's time it's time for a public servant with world experience to occupy the White House.

After serving a mission for the LDS Church and working as a church archivist, Kopitke began his political career in the early 1990s in Utah, unsuccessfully running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate, Salt Lake County assessor and county clerk.

After failing to get elected to public office, he decided to go into the fundraising for patriotism business. He incorporated the National Korean War Museum in 1998 in Taylorsville with the vision of building a large Korean War memorial near Beaver.

He managed to get Utah's Rep. Chris Cannon and Sen. Orrin Hatch to ask for $2 million in federal funding for the 50-acre project.

When those plans fell through, he went to Hawaii, where he tried to garner support and funds for a memorial there. When that didn't work out, he traveled to Midwest, luring veterans groups and other patriotic Americans to support his dream. But he never was able to show much to back up his claims, and in 2006 he landed in jail in Nebraska for 90 days for trying to break into a building he had earlier dubbed as a memorial.

Then, of course, there is "Super Dell" Schanze.

He isn't running for president. He is running for governor.

Again.

"SUPERDELL," which is how he wrote his first name when he filed to run, declaring himself as an "independant (sic)" ran for governor in 2008, when he once declared he was "the only real American" in the race and for Saratoga Springs mayor in 2009.

He rose to prominence in the early 1990s with his "Super Dell" radio and television ads for his now-defunct Totally Awesome Computer business.

He has received less welcome publicity for being charged with illegally brandishing a gun at some folks who were upset that he had sped through their neighborhood, for allegedly kicking an owl while para-gliding next to it, and for buzzing motorists on I-15 with his para-glider, allegedly to promote his para-gliding business.

During court appearances over those incidents, he would tell reporters covering the story that they needed to "repent." —