Alan Choate Daily Herald
Sunday, April 30, 2006

State Sen. Parley Hellewell borrowed an idea from the hit movie "Napoleon Dynamite" for the Utah County GOP convention Saturday and passed out "Vote for Parley" T-shirts, a play on the plain "Vote for Pedro" shirts from the film's school president election.

Pedro won his race. Hellewell wasn't so fortunate.

Instead, delegates to the convention nominated state Rep. Margaret Dayton to represent the party in Senate District 15.

Hellewell wasn't the only legislative incumbent who ran into trouble.

0 In House District 56, the votes went decisively to Kenneth Sumsion of American Fork over the current officeholder, state Rep. David Cox of Lehi. And incumbent state Rep. James Ferrin of Orem was almost neck and neck with challenger Stephen Sandstrom in House District 58, meaning voters will decide the nomination in a June 27 primary.

Delegates also narrowed a three-person field seeking to replace Dayton in House District 61, but neither Garr Judd nor Keith Grover garnered the 60 percent vote necessary to secure the nomination. That race will be decided in a primary vote as well.

In other contested races, state Reps. Brad Daw of Orem (District 60) and Aaron Tilton of Springville (District 65) were nominated for re-election.

The Senate District 15 race was marred by an anonymous attack letter blasting Dayton and by revelations that people associated with the 1998 campaign in which Hellewell first won office had engaged in negative campaigning.

Hellewell said he was "surprised" at Saturday's vote, and said the way he handled his candidacy -- he initially announced he wouldn't seek re-election, but filed to run just before the deadline -- could've hurt his image among delegates.

"I'm sure me getting out and then getting back in was, of course, an issue," he said. "I wasn't going to run because I wanted to do a lot of other things, like run my business. So I guess that's what I'll go do."

Dayton did not return a phone call seeking comment.

There were three candidates seeking the District 61 nomination, and the first round of balloting was close. John Tinsley of Orem was eliminated in that round, and then Judd and Grover essentially split the vote on the second round.

"Up until the vote, it could have been any of the three's race," Grover said. "It wasn't a foregone conclusion."

Results

House District 56
David Cox 39 35%
Kenneth Sumsion 72 65%

House District 58
James Ferrin 47 49%
S. Sandstrom 49 51%

House District 60
Brad Daw 64 71%
L. Houskeeper 26 29%

House District 61
Garr Judd 45 52%
Keith Grover 41 48%

House District 65
Aaron Tilton 65 61%
Carl Nielson 7 6%
Harold Mitchell 35 33%

Senate District 15
Margaret Dayton 149 62.6%
Parley Hellewell 89 37.4%

Candidates needed at least 60 percent of the delegates' votes in their races Saturday to secure the nomination. These are the final votes; in some cases there was an initial ballot that eliminated a third candidate.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.