Utah County attorney won't run for re-election

Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election after running the prosecutor office for more than a decade.

Buhman said in a Thursday news release that he will continue to serve as county attorney until his term ends next January, saying he still has “much work to do on many important issues.”

“While my love for the work of this office is undiminished,” he wrote, “I am ready to pursue different challenges and opportunities after the end of my term.”

First elected as county attorney in 2006, Buhman said he doesn’t yet know yet what his future holds, but wrote he hopes to advance the interests of Utah County.

Buhman, a Republican, is supporting an internal candidate who is seeking to replace him, Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander. Buhman said he is “excited for the vision and new direction” Grunander has for the office.

Grunander announced in a Thursday news release that he will run for office as a Republican. He said he will work to aggressively prosecute criminals, while maintaining high ethical standards.

“The people of Utah County deserve an experienced county prosecutor who is prepared to hit the ground running,” Grunander said in a statement. “Now is not the time to experiment with public safety. Local prosecutors are facing the highest numbers of violent felonies and homicides in history and an opioid epidemic ravaging our state.”

Grunander is a Utah County native, and has been prosecuting cases for almost 14 years. He has worked as a supervising attorney and an interim chief deputy attorney.

He’ll have at least one challenger for the county attorney position. Orem attorney David Leavitt, who has served as city attorney in Fillmore and Nephi cities and as the Juab County Attorney, announced he also will run for Utah County Attorney this year as a Republican.

In his announcement, Leavitt — who is the brother of former Utah governor Mike Leavitt — said he would “set the tone for ethical government in Utah County,” which would include overseeing the filings of all felony cases and holding employees accountable to ensure ethical behavior.

“The power of an elected prosecutor should never be exercised for political purposes, nor should it be delegated to deputies who don’t have to answer to voters,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Unfortunately, that is exactly what’s happening in the Utah County Attorney’s Office. I’m running for this position to return accountability to the office and to eliminate politically-influenced prosecutions.”

Leavitt said Thursday that he is concerned that prosecuting decisions in the county attorney’s office are being made in order to be viewed favorably by the public — not based on the merits of each individual case.

He also said there have been several notable cases where prosecutors engaged in “unethical behavior” and received no apparent discipline. He said he wants to change that within the office.