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Two State School Board Members May Have Lost Re-election Bids

Utah State Office of Education

Two state school board incumbents, including a school board chair, were likely eliminated in Tuesday’s primary election.

Preliminary election results show Utah State School Board Chair and District 10 representative Dave Crandall lost his re-election bid to Kathleen Riebe and Gary Thompson, although it still may be too close to call.

Crandall says the outcome of his race was indicative of a brand new election process. He says his challengers have the support of groups like the Utah Education Association.

“There’s no perfect process,” Crandall says. “Elections are definitely going to be influenced by contributions and whether that comes from interest groups or parties that’s what’s going to determine how these elections play out.”

Eight of 15 state school board seats are up for election this year. Seven candidates were thrust into a primary after Utah adopted open non-partisan school board elections. After this year, school board races will be partisan.

District 7 school board member Leslie Castle may also have lost her seat to challengers Carol Barlow-Lear or Shelly Teuscher.

The state will conduct a final canvas to confirm the results on July 12th.

The general election is November 8th

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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