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County GOP Fills Two Vacancies in Special Election

Aimmee Winder Newton
Aimee Winder Newton

Seventy-eight percent of the county Republican Central Committee voted for Aimee Winder Newton. She will replace David Wilde, who resigned earlier this month with a year left in his term.

Prior to her work as the city’s communications director, Newton served on the Taylorsville City Planning Commission and Economic Development Committee. Newton is among three of the nine-members on the council who live on the west side of the county and the only woman. She says she wants to use her social media skills to get more people involved in county government.

(:16) “I want to be a collaborator,” Newton says. “I want to be able to work with both parties, both the democrats and republicans. I think it’s really important that we have good relationships and work well together. I want to go in there and support good fiscal policy and conservative values and transparency.”

After two rounds of voting, GOP delegates in House District 49 elected Robert Spendlove with 64 percent of the vote. He currently works as Governor Gary Herbert’s deputy of state and federal relations. He says his priorities include state’s rights, economic development, air quality and bipartisanship.

(:16) “We can’t be successful, unless we’re all working together,” Spendlove says. “In a state like Utah we need to be reaching across the aisle. We need to be working together. We need to be defining our goals and objectives together and trying to make our state a better place.”

Spendlove will succeed former state representative Derek Brown who resigned this month. 

Salt Lake County Republicans filled vacancies on the Salt Lake County council and in the Utah State House of Representatives yesterday. Former Taylorsville Spokeswoman Aimee Winder Newton won the seat on the Salt Lake County Council and Robert Spendlove will represent District 49 in the Utah House. 

Whittney Evans grew up southern Ohio and has worked in public radio since 2005. She has a communications degree from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, where she learned the ropes of reporting, producing and hosting. Whittney moved to Utah in 2009 where she became a reporter, producer and morning host at KCPW. Her reporting ranges from the hyper-local issues affecting Salt Lake City residents, to state-wide issues of national interest. Outside of work, she enjoys playing the guitar and getting to know the breathtaking landscape of the Mountain West.
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