Democratic Utah Attorney General candidate Charles Stormont officially launched his campaign today with a call for real reform in the office.
Charles Stormont says as a recent employee in the Attorney General’s office he can say with confidence that Sean Reyes hasn’t done enough to fix the problems in the office left over from former AG John Swallow.
“I worked in the office before today and I can tell you that nothing has really changed," he says. "The superficial changes that we’ve heard about in the press are not enough to restore the confidence of the people of this great state or to restore moral of the many dedicated public servants in that office.”
Stormont says if elected he plans on doing three things differently than Reyes. He says he’ll start an independent state ethics office, implement best practices already found in other top law firms, and remove the gag order prohibiting members of the office from speaking to the press that was put in place by Reyes.
“That press policy dives people into further isolation, it facilitates further bad conduct and it destroys office morale.”
Stormont also commented on the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling upholding the decision that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
“I would immediately drop that case," he says. "It is a tremendous waste of taxpayer resources. It is destroying families and that has to stop. We have to stand up for people’s rights. We shouldn’t be fighting to take them away.”
Stormont also began his leave from his position in the AG’s office today. A state law bars him from running as a candidate and holding a merit based position with the state at the same time. He won’t receive any pay during his absence.
