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Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has his eyes on a new job: president of the University of Utah.
The state's top lawman has "notified the University of Utah that he is interested in applying for the position," Shurtleff's spokesman, Paul Murphy, said in an email Monday. Shurtleff, however, would not say more about his interest in the post.
A search committee to find a successor to former president Michael Young, who left Utah to become the head of the University of Washington, was announced in May.
"We've been accepting applications, and we've hired a search firm to help us go through those applications," said Holly Braithwaite, a spokeswoman for the Utah System of Higher Education. "Right now it's still in a pretty preliminary stage."
The search committee hopes to select a president by the middle of next summer, Braithwaite said.
Former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt's name has also been circulated as a nominee for the job.
For Shurtleff, the Utah job would mean a significant pay increase. The Attorney General's total yearly compensation is $146,476. As Utah president, Young earned $394,319.