Utah Republican Party

It took 16 ballots and nearly five hours of debate, but the Utah Republican Party on Saturday agreed to recommend Bill Wright to represent District 68 in the state House.

The GOP held a special caucus meeting in Nephi to find a replacement for Rep. Bradley Winn, R-Ephraim, who resigned his post after accepting a job at Utah State University's Huntsman School of Business.

Winn, who plans to move to the Mountain Green area, worked as a Snow College provost and has served in the Legislature since 2007.

Utah law requires GOP state delegates in District 68 to select a nominee to replace Winn.

Wright's name will be passed to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who will make the final decision on whether to appoint him to serve the remainder of Winn's term, which expires in January 2011.

Forty-six state delegates mulled over four candidates for close to five hours Saturday evening. The group needed to reach a 61 percent consensus on a name to pass forward to Herbert.

After 16 ballots, the delegates voted to endorse Wright for the position. Wright, a dairy farmer, previously served in the state House in the 1980s as well as the Utah Senate, said GOP chairman Dave Hansen.

Hansen said it was unusual to have so many rounds of voting among state delegates to produce a recommendation.

"We kept balloting to take it from four candidates to two candidates," Hansen said. "In all my years in politics, I've never seen this many [rounds of voting]."

Wright, who lives in Holden in Millard County, earned the nomination over Edwin Sunderland, of Chester in Sanpete County, in the final round of voting.