Party lines blur for progressive voters in Utah AG race

State of play: Democrat Rudy Bautista, who ran as a Libertarian in 2020, raised a total of $100 through September, according to state financial disclosures — and his campaign did not appear to have a website as of Tuesday.

• "I am actually an independent running under the Democratic Party ticket, but as an independent I am both progressive and conservative depending on the issue," Bautista said in a debate in early October.

Meanwhile, United Utah Party candidate Michelle Quist — who was a longtime Republican and member of the Utah GOP's State Central Committee — has been courting Democrats as the more viable alternative to Brown.

• She's raised more than $130,000 and won the endorsements of former Democratic Congressman Ben McAdams, two prominent former justices on the state Supreme Court, and former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang's Forward Party.

Reality check: Brown has raised more than $1 million, eclipsing both candidates as well as Libertarian W. Andrew McCullough and unaffiliated candidate Austin Hepworth.

The intrigue: A number of Democrats and other progressives are voicing support for Quist — even though the third-party approach has previously failed to beat out Republicans.

Flashback: Independent candidate Evan McMullin lost decisively to U.S. Sen. Mike Lee in 2022 even with the endorsement of the state Democratic Party, which refused to field its own candidate.

• Those decisions ended with rancor among Democrats, with some local organizers saying it hurt down-ballot candidates.

Catch up quick: Reyes announced in December he would not seek re-election amid controversy over his close ties to embattled anti-sex-trafficking crusader Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad, the nonprofit Ballard founded.

• The Utah AG's office has been beset by more than a decade of scandal, with Reyes and his two predecessors leaving office in a cloud of accusations.
• John Swallow resigned in 2013 amid investigations into an alleged pay-for-play scheme.
• Swallow and his predecessor, AG Mark Shurtleff, were arrested in 2014 on charges relating to public corruption. Prosecutors dropped their case against Shurtleff in 2016, and in 2017 a jury acquitted Swallow.