Richard and Carol Lyman are dropping out of the gubernatorial race after Phil Lyman files a lawsuit

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Phil Lyman, a Republican candidate for governor, has sued two other candidates with the same last name, claiming they were offered payment to run by Spencer Cox's campaign and seeking damages from their campaign would have cost him up to $1.7 million.

Phil Lyman filed a lawsuit against Richard and Carol Lyman on October 16th with these allegations. On Thursday, however, the two parties agreed to a condition that Richard and Carol Lyman would drop out of the race by 5 p.m. and that “any vote for Lyman in the general election will be counted as a vote for Phil Lyman,” the proposed provision says.

Utah's lieutenant governor's office confirmed the withdrawal and clarified that it is directing county officials to treat the election as if Richard and Carol Lyman had never entered the race. The office said it was reasonable to assume that all write-in votes for “Lyman” would be counted as votes for Phil Lyman.

Phil Lyman's allegations

According to court documents, Phil Lyman and his vice presidential candidate Natalie Clawson filed suit in Utah's 3rd District Court, claiming: “Richard Lyman reported on September 3 that the Cox campaign had offered him $1,000 and a steak dinner in exchange for his declaration of candidacy.” .”

Richard and Carol Lyman have denied the allegations. The Cox campaign previously called the allegations “patently false.”

The lawsuit includes a statement from James Newson, who claims he is an employee of Richard Lyman. He claims in the lawsuit that Richard Lyman took a personal call at work that day and told Newson that the Cox campaign had just offered him the money and dinner to “screw Lyman's campaign.”

“He seemed genuinely excited about it,” Newson wrote in his statement.

According to court documents, Newson accuses Richard Lyman of leaving work early to take over the file.

Newson then claims in his filing that after speaking to Phil Lyman and the media about his claims, Richard Lyman denounced that Cox had something to do with the alleged offer and had not threatened him.

Court documents show those text messages dated Sept. 9, but they were interrupted after Richard Lyman wrote: “Cox is threatening me? He seriously had nothing to do with it. I never talked about it or had any form of…” That’s the end of the text thread.

Court documents show the lawsuit is still pending.

Richard and Carol Lyman respond

On Friday, Richard and Carol Lyman released a statement withdrawing from the gubernatorial and lieutenant governor races.

In the statement, Richard and Carol Lyman said the allegations in the lawsuit against them were false and that they had been “forced out of the race.”

“Before we even filed our candidacy, there was already a plan to push us out of the race,” said Richard and Carol Lyman. “The plan culminated in a frivolous lawsuit that we simply cannot afford to fight. … We have every right to run for governor and lieutenant governor and should not have been driven out by people with greater means.”

According to the statement, Carol Lyman had broken her femur “days after undergoing knee surgery on the same leg” and claimed this had “made it more difficult to get her campaign off the ground.”

The statement said Richard Lyman “had political ambitions since childhood and wanted to bring attention to issues such as homelessness, addiction and mental health.”

Richard and Carol Lyman said they were grateful for the support they received during the campaign and wished “all candidates running for elected office the best of luck in the coming weeks as Utahns cast their votes for the next one.” Governor and lieutenant governor.”

Utah County clerk supports Phil Lyman's claims

According to the documents, Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson also filed a brief on Phil Lyman's behalf pledging support for another claim by Phil Lyman that Richard and Carol Lyman had not campaigned since their filing.

“I have not seen or heard of any Lyman/Lyman campaign,” Davidson wrote in his statement. “Every attempt I have seen from anyone to reach him has been met with the door being closed.”

Davidson noted that Richard and Carol Lyman's campaign website only contains five photos, which has nothing “to do with their campaign,” and that the links do not work.

For this reason, Davidson also wrote: “It is fair to assume that her entire campaign is aimed at creating confusion among voters.”

Contribute: Michael Houck