On Friday, Oct. 25, residents of Carbon County had the opportunity to meet with Republican Candidate for Utah Attorney General Derek Brown during a luncheon hosted by the Carbon County GOP.
Brown, whose credentials included stints as the Utah Republican Party Chairman, State Congressional Representative and legal counsel to several Utah senators, took the time to meet with local leaders in both Carbon and Emery Counties as he traveled through Castle Country.
During the luncheon, Brown spoke on several issues he aims to address if elected as state Attorney General. These include what he sees as government overreach, namely by the executive branch, transparency and states’ rights.
“One of the biggest reasons I’m running is the degree to which the federal government has really sort of crept into every aspect of our life.” Brown continued,” I mean it doesn’t matter what business you’re in. It does not matter where you are, there is a federal agency that can put you out of business.”
The solution? Brown proposes a reliance on the Tenth Amendment, which declares any powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people. He would use this to check what he described as “midlevel bureaucrats.” “The one remedy we have as a state is to file soon against the federal government against the agency to say, ‘Look, you can’t do that.’” explained the candidate,” There’s only one person in every state empowered to do that on behalf of the state, that’s the Attorney General. There’s a lot that the Attorney General does, but that’s one of the most critical things that I think that’s going to have to happen.”
Brown also took aim at the issue of public lands, an issue which the Carbon County Commissioners recently signed a letter of support for as the State prepares to sue the federal government over federal land in Utah. “The question is, what is the recourse? What can you do? Who designates land to be everything use or not? What criteria did they use to be able to designate places as National monuments? And that’s what changes, it changes with administrations.” Brown explained,” and that’s what happened with Bear’s-ears, we submitted public comments, everyone that submitted comments and they did what they just flushed them down the toilet. And that’s the problem with agencies, is they come in and they’ll reinterpret the law.”
One of the last issues Brown tackled was transparency and supporting all counties equally. “I spent some time in Piute County, which was more about just saying what can I do? I mean, if I become the AG, what would you like to see? So that, that is for me, it’s critical. Because the AG is less about telling everybody what to do, and more about directing resources, having a vision, and then having these lines of communication with the counties.”
To learn more about Brown’s campaign, you can visit his website derekforutah.com.