Concerns about public lands dominate debate in race for Washington County Attorney

Photo by Michael Flynn, The Independent

Written by Michael Flynn

The two candidates in the June 24 Republican primary election for the Washington County Attorney’s seat faced off Thursday afternoon at a debate sponsored by the Washington County Republican Women.

Incumbent Brock Belnap, who has served as Washington County Attorney for the past 10 years, is being challenged by Nathan Caplin, who, despite having graduated from law school at Brigham Young University only four years ago, has garnered a strong base of support with his campaign message advocating a return to a more constitutionally grounded government. Because the seat has not been contested by candidates from any other political party, the candidate who wins the primary will also win the general election by default.

The candidates were each given 15 minutes to outline their platform to the audience. Caplin began with kind words for his opponent.

“I support and love Brock Belnap; he’s a good man,” Caplin said. “I’m not running against him, we’re just in the same race. We’re on the same team,” he said, adding that, regardless of which candidate the voters choose, he feels that both he and Belnap share the same goal of restoring constitutional principles in government. 

Caplin summed up the reason he was running for the office in three words. “It’s the Constitution,” he said, explaining that he would like to see the United States return to a more originalist interpretation of the constitution, which, in his view, has been “run roughshod over by certain people in our government.”

“I feel that there is another civil rights fight today,” Caplin said. “It’s not the gay rights movement, in my view. It’s the right of people who live on the land […] to have a say in how that land is managed. It’s the civil rights movement of the 21st century.”

He compared the civil rights movement of the 1960s to Utah’s ongoing struggle to control public and federal lands. Caplin suggested that the public lands issue can be won by adopting strategies similar to those used by Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders to create a demand for reform at the grassroots level. The same methods might be used, Caplin said, to garner increased support for public land reform, which he envisions will be realized in the courtroom.

“We can take that template of civil rights and grassroots movements,” Caplin said, “and then the left hook is civil litigation preparation. I think that will go very far towards weakening the stranglehold of these federal agencies on our county.”

Belnap said that while he supports public land reform and shares Caplin’s commitment to constitutional principles, voters should be aware that the county attorney’s office spends most of its time and resources prosecuting criminals. The position oversees the prosecution of criminals in all municipalities throughout the Washington County, he said, around 3,000 cases every year.

As county attorney, neither he nor Caplin would have the authority to make the sort of policy decisions that Caplin described; the county commissioners are elected to make those decisions, he said. The county attorney’s job is to offer legal advice about policy, not to create it.

By way of example, Belnap told the audience to imagine how they would react if they discovered their own personal attorney was making important decisions for them without their permission.

“You can imagine if you hired an attorney, and that attorney called you up one day and said, ‘I just sued your neighbor because I thought he was encroaching on your backyard, but I didn’t bother to talk to you about it first,’” he said. “That would be a problem.”

Belnap said he was glad that, in his opening remarks, Caplin clarified that his campaign slogan, “Return to the Constitution,” wasn’t meant as an attack on his record.

“I uphold to [the] Constitution with every decision I make in the county attorney’s office,” Belnap said. He went on to provide examples, such as what he called a “monumental and groundbreaking lawsuit” filed against the federal government on behalf of Washington County demanding local access to roads in federally controlled areas of the county.

Belnap also discussed an ongoing legal battle his office is fighting, to resist efforts by federal agencies to take control of dry washes throughout the county, as well as his office’s struggle with the Environmental Protection Agency over the endangered Mojave Desert Tortoise.

During the audience question-and-answer segment, both candidates expressed their concerns about the Common Core program of federally mandated educational standards and guidelines; however, they told the questioner that the county attorney’s office does not deal with educational issues, as the school district employs its own legal team.

The only question dealing with the county attorney’s role as chief prosecutor was specifically directed to Caplin. The questioner, who described herself as a criminal prosecutor who regularly handles felony cases, asked Caplin, “How can I expect to receive guidance from you? Have you handled felony cases?”

“No, I haven’t,” Caplin said. “I’ll just be honest with you.”

The Republican primary election for Washington County Attorney, which will be held on June 24, is open to all Washington County voters who are registered as Republicans. Voters who did not disclose a party affiliation or would like to change their party affiliation in order to participate in the primary must update their registration records with the Washington County Clerk’s office.

Voters may register in person at the Washington County Clerk’s office at 197 E. Tabernacle St. in St. George no later than June 19, or online at https://secure.utah.gov/voterreg/index.html by June 16.