Copyright Salt Lake Tribune
Note to readers •The Salt Lake Tribune is making this story free to all. St. George • Mayor Michele Randall and City Council member Jimmie Hughes squared off Tuesday in the battle to lead and set the agenda for southern Utah’s largest city. Early unofficial returns had Hughes, the mayor pro tem on St. George’s City Council, outpacing Randall, 54.5% to 45.5%. If Hughes’ lead holds up, it would represent a reversal of fortune for him since he has come up short against the incumbent twice before in general elections.. In January 2021, the council gave Randall the nod over Hughes to replace Mayor Jon Pike, who left three years into his term to head the Utah Insurance Department. She then beat Hughes in November of that year in the general election. In the August primary, Randall topped Hughes again, carrying 41% of the vote to the challenger’s 37%. In this year’s mayoral matchup, the two have butted heads over a number of issues, including how to fund public safety and maintain civility at council meetings. Randall favored Safe St. George, a failed 2022 property tax hike proposal to raise $90 million to hire more police officers and firefighters. Hughes opposed the property tax hike and voted with the majority to kill the plan. Hughes also scolded Randall for her short-lived decision in May 2023 to scrap the public comment portion of public meetings in hopes of restoring order and civility. She later reinstated public comment periods, with some modifications, after taking heat from council members and residents. Randall, in turn, questioned whether Hughes, who has a mortuary business and runs a cattle ranch on the Arizona Strip, has the bandwidth to attend to time-consuming mayoral duties and questions why voters would want to change horses midstream with so many positive developments happening in St. George, including the start of construction on a $15 million control tower at St. George Regional Airport and a new $45 million City Hall that is nearing completion on Main Street. In the race for two City Council seats, one-term incumbents Natalie Larsen and Michelle Tanner led, earning 30% and 28% of the vote, respectively. Jami Leavitt, with 23%, and Greg Aldred, with 18% of the vote, lagged behind.
