Janet Ann Graham Hunt (née Crump; July 19, 1949 – January 29, 2024), best-known as Jan Graham, was an American lawyer from Utah who served as State Attorney General from 1993 to 2001.[1] Other than candidates for Lieutenant Governor running on a ticket with a male candidate, she is the only[2] woman ever elected to statewide office in the state of Utah.[3] She is the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Utah.
Jan Graham | |
|---|---|
| 18th Attorney General of Utah | |
| In office January 1993 – January 2001 | |
| Governor | Mike Leavitt |
| Preceded by | Paul Van Dam |
| Succeeded by | Mark Shurtleff |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Janet Ann Crump July 19, 1949 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
| Died | January 29, 2024 (aged 74) St. George, Utah, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse |
Verl "Buzz" Hunt (m. 1989) |
| Children | 2 |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Early life, education, and legal career
editJanet Ann Crump was born on July 19, 1949, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.[4] [5][6][7] She graduated from South High in 1967, and enrolled at Brigham Young University. While at BYU, Crump successfully bypassed BYU’s prohibition on women wearing jeans to its Testing Center by wearing no pants at all, which gave the impression she was wearing a hidden skirt.[8] She transferred to the University of Utah, and then to Clark University in Massachusetts, and graduated in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in psychology.[7]
Crump returned to Salt Lake and enrolled in the University of Utah's graduate school, where she got a master's degree in psychology in 1977.[7] While in graduate school, she worked as a teacher at Franklin Elementary for one year, and as a counselor at the Northwest Multipurpose Center. In 1977, she enrolled in the University of Utah law school, and was awarded her J.D. in 1980.[7] While in law school, she married, and took the name Graham. She subsequently divorced.[6]
Graham was hired at Jones, Waldo, Holbrook and McDonough in 1980. By 1985, she had made partner, and become the first woman on the Board of Directors. In 1989, she married Verl "Buzz" Hunt.[5][9] She was a founding member of Women Lawyers of Utah, and one of the first four women members of the Alta Club.[10]
Public office
editShe ran for the office of Attorney General in 1992, while she was pregnant with her first child. She had her baby two days after the State Democratic Convention. In the general election, she defeated Iron County Attorney Scott Burns, getting 49% of the statewide vote.[11] She was re-elected in 1996 in a rematch with Burns with 52% of the vote.[12]
Graham made the state of Utah a plaintiff in landmark tobacco legislation. The litigation included arguments over the Attorney General's power, both from the tobacco companies,[13] and from Utah's Governor, Michael Leavitt.[14] The struggle between Utah's only Democratic statewide officeholder and the state's Republican legislature and Governor resulted in passage of a law requiring the Governor's approval on any civil litigation. The Attorney General sued, a compromise was reached, and the law was ultimately repealed.[15][16]
At the end of her second term, Graham was one of two women on the Deseret News list of Utah's most powerful people.[17][18][19]
Later life and death
editGraham died at her home in St. George, Utah, on January 29, 2024, at the age of 74. She had been diagnosed a decade earlier with primary peritoneal cancer.[5][20]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Former Utah Attorney General Jan Graham has died
- ^ "Rolly: Lack of women in politics has real consequences, Salt Lake Tribune, June 8, 2013".
- ^ UVU Utah Women in Office
- ^ Groutage, Hilary. "Graham wins cliff-hanger race". Daily Spectrum. p. 10. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
- ^ a b c "Jan Graham Hunt". St. George News. February 2024. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
- ^ a b Whitney, Susan (June 5, 1997). "Jan Graham: A private person in a public life". Deseret News. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
- ^ a b c d "Graham to speak at women's conference". Tooele Transcript-Bulletin. April 19, 1994. p. 5. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
- ^ Lewis, Rachel (December 11, 2002). "Testing Center unique to BYU". The Daily Universe. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
- ^ "GRAHAM'S VALUES ROOTED IN WORKING-CLASS FAMILY". DeseretNews.com. October 10, 1996. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
- ^ ""Women Lawyers of Utah: How it All Started," Utah Bar Journal, January 8, 2007". Archived from the original on March 11, 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
- ^ David Leip. "1992 Attorney General General Election Results — Utah". uselectionatlas.org.
- ^ David Leip. ""1996 Attorney General General Election Results — Utah," US Election Atlas". uselectionatlas.org.
- ^ PHILIP MORRIS INCORPORATED, et. al. vs. JANET C. GRAHAM, Attorney General of the State of Utah, et. al. DEFENDANTS' MEMORANDUM IN RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT, Civil No. 960904948C
- ^ ""'Unprecedented' Power Struggle Puts Utah Statehouse in Spotlight"". Los Angeles Times. April 11, 1999.
- ^ ""Graham and Leavitt may have settled feud"". DeseretNews.com. July 21, 1999. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
- ^ ""Rolly: Utah lawmakers' affair with big tobacco"". sltrib.com. August 18, 2013.
- ^ ""No. 10 — Jan Graham"". DeseretNews.com. May 16, 2001. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
- ^ ""Swallow and single-party voting"". Salt Lake Tribune. February 19, 2013.
- ^ "Utah group aims to help more women win public office", Deseret News, January 16, 2016.
- ^ "Jan Graham, Utah's first and only female attorney general, dies at 74". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2024-02-03.