Utah Democratic Sen. Jim Dabakis announced his candidacy for Salt Lake City mayor on Monday.
Dabakis, who currently represents the city, said he has a vision of where Salt Lake City can be, and he wants to be there.
“You know, I think Salt Lake is a great city, and I think it can be one of the greatest cities in the world,” Dabakis said.
He joins three other Democrats who have opened candidate committees for the position: current mayor Ralph Becker, City Council Chair Luke Garrott and former state lawmaker Jackie Biskupski, who announced her candidacy in January.
Like Dabakis, Biskupski is openly gay. She has expressed the concern that having two gay candidates may split the vote. Dabakis, however, does not share Biskupski’s concern.
“I love Jackie and I think she’s a terrific person, but I think this idea somehow that two gay people shouldn’t run is not right,” he said. “I mean, I’m not running for mayor because I’m gay. I’m running because I love this city and I have a passion and energy for leading it.”
Biskupsi tweeted Monday morning, saying, “Today we have two strong LGBT candidates running for mayor of SLC, both with experience as elected officials. We should be proud of that.”
Dabakis said it’s terrific that there are so many candidates for mayor, and added that there is plenty of room for a few more. He said there aren’t enough competitive races in Utah.
“It’s good for a city to have a vigorous, strong debate,” he said. “It is good for a community to have an election that’s viable and has candidates competing with each other, rather than just having a coronation.”
The deadline to declare official candidacy is the first week of June. Currently, no Republicans have formed candidate committees.