Last week, The Farm Bureau hosted a “Meet the Candidates” night for Oneida County primary voters at the Event Center in Malad.  Those running for election in the upcoming primary were given a chance to introduce themselves to the voters that will decide on how they spend their time over the next few years, as well as discuss some of the issues that are important to the people of Oneida County.

Brody Weeks and the local Farm Bureau collected questions during the weeks leading up to the event, and grouped them into a series of shared themes.  There was a lot of information discussed at the forum, and no way to fit it all into this edition of the paper, especially given the extremely busy week that it was.  To that end, this article will serve to overview the candidates and positions up for election, and we will focus on aspects of the main topics the candidates were asked about over the next two weeks leading up to the election.

The topics that dominated the questions on voter’s minds basically fell into three categories: water, development/growth, and support for law enforcement.

The evening was opened with the colors presented by Troop 1776 and an invocation, and then the introduction of the candidates.

County officials who are on the ballot but running unopposed briefly spoke to the audience, and thanked voters for their continued support.  Kathleen Atkinson (Assessor), Leigh Love (Treasurer), Lon Colton (County Clerk), and Brad Horsley (County Coroner) are all on the ballot for the primary without opponents.  Because there are no candidates from any other parties in the election, the primary is essentially the balance of the election in their cases.

The opposite is true for the remaining candidates, as the primaries represent the point at which their candidacies will be decided, practically speaking.  Whoever wins the primary on May 19, in other words, will be on the ballot in November as the sole candidate for their positions.  While there is always a very small chance of some other outcome (a candidate withdrawal after the primary, for instance), May 19 is the red letter day for those who sat on the panel last week.

A Voters Guide to the candidates for contested offices is included in this paper once again, and the intention is to run it in the next editions as well.  For one thing, last week’s version listed Mike Asay alongside information about Randy Willie, and it’s important to me to correct that error.  For another thing, it’s never a bad thing to read or hear the information about who is running as much as possible.  Given that primary elections generally see lower turnout than general elections, as well as the relatively small voter base in Oneida County, every vote stands a very good chance of being a difference maker.

There are parallel elections underway, with three candidates running for both precinct committeeman positions as well as county commission seats.  Bob Crowther, Bill Drury, and Randy Willie are running for both positions simultaneously, and were asked whether they would maintain both positions.  It was clarified that there was nothing preventing that in the bylaws of either the Republican Central Committee or the County governance, and the candidates expressed the belief that the duties were not overlapping and it would be possible to perform both offices without much trouble.

The forum then moved on to overall introductions, which you can find the basics elements of in the voters guide.

The two positions at stake in this election are those that will replace current Oneida County Board of County Commissioner Chairman Bill Lewis, and County Commissioner Ken Eliason, who have both decided not to run for another term.  The two primary winners will join current Commissioner Brian Jeppsen on the Board when they are sworn in at the beginning of 2027.

In the District 1 spot, Mike Asay, Bob Crowther, Bill Drury, and Drew Pettis are on the ballot.  The candidates all stressed during the discussion that they are friendly with one another, and will work together for the good of the community regardless of who should win the primary.  There was a lot of agreement throughout the discussion about the importance of protecting citizen rights and making sound choices regarding growth and regulation.  The differences that were expressed often had to do with specific areas of focus or ideas about particular aspects of development or planning and zoning regulation.  We will start with Development next week as the focused topic of exploration for the candidate responses.

In District 2, Kirk Nielsen and Randy Willie are on the ballot.  The way that the forum was set up, the candidates all addressed the questions as a group, rather than by district, so the responses were essentially on a level field throughout.  

As stated, next week, we will dive into what Oneida County candidates had to say about development, and then the remaining issues the following week.  

Each of the candidates noted that they were happy to talk to voters who had any questions for them about their positions and candidacies, and we will provide preferred contact information for them once we have a full set of those contacts.