Jan Graham

Jan Graham was Utah State Attorney General from 1993 to 2001. She was the first (and only^[1]) woman ever elected to statewide office in the state of Utah.^[2]

Early life, Education, Legal Career

Jan Crump was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She graduated from South High in 1967, and enrolled at Brigham Young University. She transferred to the University of Utah, and then to Clark University in Massachusetts, and graduated in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. She 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. While in grad school, she worked as a teacher at Franklin Elementary for one year, and as a counselor at the Northwest Multipurpose Center. In 1997, she enrolled in the University of Utah law school, and got her J.D. in 1980. While in law school, she married, and took the name Graham. She subsequently divorced. She 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 Buzz Hunt.^[3] She was a founding member of Women Lawyers of Utah, and one of the first four women members of the Alta Club.^[4]

Public Office

Joe Tesch, who was working for then-Attorney General Paul Van Dam, asked Jan to apply for the job of solicitor general in 1990. She 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.^[5] She was re-elected in 1996 in a rematch with Burns with 52% of the vote.^[6]

Jan 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,^[7] and from Utah's Governor, Michael Leavitt.^[8] 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 okay on any civil litigation. The Attorney General sued, a compromise was reached, and the law was ultimately repealed.^[9][10]

At the end of her second term, Jan Graham was one of two women on the Deseret News's list of Utah's most powerful people.^[11] In addition to being the only woman ever elected to statewide office in Utah, she is also the last Democrat elected to statewide office in Utah.^[12]

References