By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

While speaking at the Carbon County GOP Constitution Day Picnic, state Auditor Tina Cannon asked constituents for their support as she fights a legislature-proposed eviction from her office in the Capitol Building rotunda – the second time this year such an action has been proposed.

“I would ask for your support as I am facing an independence juggernaut with the legislature. At this point in time, they are trying to move my office, which is prominently located in the state rotunda,” said Cannon at the event. “The rotunda is a symbolic place. But that is a symbol of not me, and not where I conduct my work. I can do audits in a storage bay in Magna … We will continue to represent the people of Utah in the audits that we do. But this is an attack on the separation and the authority that I represent as a constitutional officer.”

This proposed move follows a meeting of the Capitol Preservation Board, which, in a majority vote, elected to relocate Cannon’s office. State Treasurer Marlo Oaks served as the lone dissenting voice among those present.

According to reporting from the Salt Lake Tribune,” Following the board’s vote, her office is slated to be moved to the current visitor space on the first floor of the Capitol, near its east entrance. Other executive branch elected officials have spaces on the second floor, positioned around the rotunda.”

In a Sept. 15 social media post, Cannon criticized Senate President Stuart Adams, alleging he was behind the move: “With everything going on in Utah today, the Senate President decided MY Capitol office space was the house cleaning Utah needed. WOW! The Office of the Utah State Auditor in the Capitol rotunda made someone very uncomfortable.”

With everything going on in Utah today, the Senate President decided MY Capitol office space was the house cleaning Utah needed.
WOW! The Office of the Utah State Auditor in the Capitol rotunda made someone very uncomfortable

— Tina Cannon, State Auditor of Utah (@TinaCannonUtah) September 15, 2025

“If you minimize the prominence of where that office is, you minimize the prominence of the people’s representative,” shared Cannon. “I am not appointed by the legislature. I am not appointed by the governor. I’m appointed by you, and the work that I do is to represent the people.”

This is not the first time Adams and Cannon have clashed over the auditor’s office space. The first came in the 2025 legislative session – an attempt that was abandoned on the final night of the session.

Cannon accused Adams of ‘bullying’ her out of the space, prompting the Senate president to tell reporters, “It’s unfortunate where this dialogue has gone today… I think some of the things that have happened are very, very inappropriate. This is over office space and the rhetoric over it, I think, has been totally inappropriate, and I’m very disappointed in the auditor, I’ll tell you that much.”

Closing her remarks at the event, Cannon stated,” I’ve told some of you individually, and I tell you as a group the most important quality in an independently elected state auditor is a backbone.”