CEDAR CITY — Republican voters in Iron County will soon decide who will be the newest member of the Iron County Commission.
GOP candidates Ken Robinson and Maile Wilson Edwards are both vying for the outgoing Marilyn Wood’s seat on the three-member commission. Wood, who was first elected in 2000, has decided not to run for re-election to the commission’s Seat “C”.
Registered Republicans should start seeing their primary election ballots arrive in the mail shortly after June 5; they’ll have until June 25 to return them.
Voters who are not currently affiliated with a political party may still affiliate as Republicans up until June 25, Iron County Clerk Jon Whittaker said, adding that those who do so before June 18 will be mailed a ballot.
“After that, they can do it in person during early voting or on Election Day (June 25),” he said.
Whittaker noted that this only applies to unaffiliated voters; those who are already registered as Democrats or as members of other parties are ineligible by state law to switch party affiliations after the deadline, which was Jan. 9.
Robinson and Wilson Edwards will face off in a moderated debate on Wednesday, May 29 on the Southern Utah University campus. The event is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at the Hunter Alumni Center, preceded by a meet-and-greet session starting at 5:30 p.m. It is being hosted and sponsored by SUU’s Leavitt Center for Politics and Public Service and is scheduled to be livestreamed on the center’s Facebook page.
As no candidate from any other party has filed for the county commission race, the June GOP primary will in effect decide the winner, as they will be uncontested on the November ballot. Initially, a trio of other candidates (Dallas Guymon, Patrick Larson and Steven Dodds) had also filed to run for Seat C, but all three have since dropped out of the race.
Cedar City News spoke with both Wilson Edwards and Robinson via telephone earlier this week about their respective candidacies. For more information about each candidate, visit their campaign websites, which are at the following links: Maile Wilson Edwards and Ken Robinson.
Maile Wilson Edwards
Maile Wilson Edwards, who served two four-year terms as mayor of Cedar City from 2014-2022, is a lifelong resident of Cedar City. She is married with two young children and works as a lawyer for the Kirton McConkie law firm.
“I didn’t just move into this community,” she said. “This is my home. I’m raising the fourth generation in my family to be here. It’s critically important to me that we maintain our quality of life, that we maintain our heritage, that we maintain what makes Iron County such an amazing place.”
Wilson Edwards said she hopes to help protect Iron County’s heritage while preparing for the future.
“With the growth that our county is experiencing, there are infrastructure needs,” she said.
To meet that challenge, she said, requires standing up to government bureaucracy at the state and federal levels.
“We need somebody that knows our community, that knows who they work for,” she said. “And that can and knows how to work with all of these different outside agencies, knows how to develop plans to get infrastructure, not only what projects need to be done, but how to get funding and how to see them through to completion.”
Wilson Edwards said she thinks the Iron County Commission could’ve done a better job with the proposed project to build a new county correctional facility and sheriff’s complex.
With the jail, I think the process from the start was botched,” she said. “I had this exact conversation with our commissioners, I’ve been to the jail, I’ve done all of that. I do think we need a new jail. My concern is how we got from point A to point B. And it has led to even more frustration and distrust and anger throughout our county.”
A key part of the problem, she said, is that residents were not properly informed about the proposed funding options.
“A lot of people were more for consumption tax than a property tax, especially those on a fixed income,” Wilson Edwards said. “But there wasn’t an effort made to really inform our residents. And that is a huge red flag and frustration for me. We need more transparency, we need more information, to let us know what’s going on.”
“Our elected representatives need to do a better job reaching out to our citizenry,” she added.
“That’s one reason why I’m running for this position,” she said. “As mayor, I tried to do new innovative ways to get information out to residents. And I want to bring some of those aspects to the commission, so we can get timely, accurate information to the residents. Not only about the jail, but about future projects, about what is going on, about what our elected leaders are doing, so the county residents can be involved and can ask questions.”
Citing her years of experience as an elected official, Wilson Edwards said she would be able to get to work right away as a commissioner.
“From day one, I can get to work,” she said. “I know what the issues are. I know the players, I know how to get in and get it done.”
“We need somebody with some experience,” she added. “Somebody that actually knows how to work in this arena and get things done, fight for less regulations and fight for less government interference, so our residents can continue to live the life that we all want to have in Iron County.”
Noting that the Seat C commissioner oversees the Iron County Fair, Wilson Edwards emphasized the need to continue to preserve that heritage, along with the importance of agricultural production and education.
“It’s, like, critically important to me, that we maintain our quality of life, that we maintain our heritage, that we maintain what makes Iron County such an amazing place,” she said.
“I grew up here and had incredible opportunities,” Wilson Edwards added. “And I want those same types of opportunities for my children.”
“Every decision that is made will impact not only our generation, but (those of) our children and their children,” she added. “These decisions impact their ability to stay here and to get jobs and to raise their families in this community.”
Ken Robinson
Kenneth L. Robinson is also a longtime Cedar City resident who first moved to the area to attend college at SUU, then known as Southern Utah State College. He began working at Intermountain Farmers Association as a college student, eventually working his way up to managing Cedar City’s IFA store.
“I just spent over 20 years providing products and services to the citizens of Iron County, working in the retail store,” Robinson told Cedar City News.
Robinson said his experience enabled him to build many strong relationships with customers and other business owners over the years.
Robinson said his reasons to run for county commissioner stem from his desire to give back to the community. He said he had experienced similar feelings during his years of coaching youth sports such as baseball and football.
“I just really wanted to give back and be a participant in what was going on and what was good in the county,” he said.
Robinson said his desire to become involved became stronger starting around eight months ago.
“There’s a lot of issues that are going on around the country and around the world right now,” he said. “And, you know, everybody stands back and says, ‘Man, I wish somebody would do something about that and stand up and be a voice for the common people.’”
Robinson said that he then decided that if he wanted to really make an impact, “I’ve got to do it, because nobody else is gonna do it.”
Regarding the proposed new Iron County Jail, Robinson said the option of funding the project with a sales tax increase was preferable to a property tax hike.
“The residents of Iron County have clearly indicated their opposition to funding jail through the property taxes,” he said. “We need to share the cost with visitors to our county, not just private property owners in the county. And, we need to make sure that we’re proceeding cautiously and ensure that the facility meets our needs without burdening our residents.”
Robinson said he’s spoken to state Sen. Evan Vickers (R-Cedar City), who was instrumental in seeing the consumption tax option get passed into law earlier this year, as part of House Bill 488, which enables counties in the third through sixth class to have the option of imposing a sales tax of up to 0.3% for public safety purposes.
“I talked to Sen. Evan Vickers about my concerns, that when the jail is sufficiently funded, that tax needs to go away, to make sure that this does not continue to be a burden on our citizens,” Robinson said. “The way the law is written right now, it will not go away. But in my mind, that’s definitely something that needs to be addressed.”
As for the new jail’s proposed location, Robinson said he’s perfectly fine with it.
“The IFA facility that’s right next door, that’s my project,” he said. “Everything about it is my idea. So, yeah, it’s a great place to build, with three feet of topsoil, then a gravel pit underneath. It’s very stable soil.”
“As far as the capacity of the jail, I’m pleased that they’ve looked into the future and will be able to add on to it when our population requires it,” he added.
Other issues that Robinson sees as important for Iron County include water conservation and access to public lands.
“I’m in favor of the recharge systems that are being built and that have been unveiled in the past,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for us to recharge our own aquifer, instead of letting it go out to Quichapa and evaporate. We need to make sure that we’re capitalizing on every opportunity we have in that area.”
Regarding public land use, Robinson said, “There’s a lot of entities that are trying to restrict and regulate the use of our public lands that are not elected officials.”
“That’s very concerning to me,” he said, noting that special interest groups have done a “fantastic” job of stirring up infighting among entities seeking public land access, whether it be hiking, ATV, fishing, hunting, grazing, logging, mining or other such uses.
“It doesn’t matter what entity they’re from, they try to pit those groups against each other,” he said. “One of the things that I’ve been working on, in talking with our legislators, is to make sure that we do have those safeguards in place so that we’ll continue to have multi-use public lands.”
Robinson said he is also a strong proponent of the Iron County Fair.
“It creates an opportunity for recollection of heritage,” he said. “It gives people an opportunity to get grounded, look back at their roots and see the importance of an agricultural community.”
Other races appearing on Iron County’s GOP primary ballot
Although the Wilson Edwards vs. Robinson race is the only county level race that appears on the GOP primary ballot, voters will also be narrowing the field for a handful of federal and state races:
- Four Republicans are vying to succeed outgoing U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, who isn’t running for re-election this year. They are Rep. John Curtis, Jason J. Walton, Brad Wilson and Trent Staggs.
- For U.S. House District 2, incumbent Rep. Celeste Maloy is facing a challenge from fellow Southern Utahn, Colby C. Jenkins of St. George.
- Incumbent Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson are being challenged by Utah House Rep. Phil Lyman (R-Blanding) and running mate Natalie Clawson.
- Three Republican candidates are vying for Utah Attorney General (incumbent Sean Reyes is not running for re-election). They are Derek Brown, Frank Mylar and Rachel Terry.
- And for state auditor, Tina Cannon and Ricky Hatch are both on the GOP primary ballot.
- Additionally, Iron County voters who live within the boundaries of state school board District 15 will also be deciding whether to advance incumbent Kristian Norton or challenger Joann Brinton to the November general election.
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