OGDEN — The filing period for mayoral and City Council candidates has come and gone and shows that there is a plethora of civic interest in the city this election cycle.

In the race for mayor, seven candidates officially filed last week, including Ben Nadolski, Oscar Mata, Taylor Knuth, Jon Greiner, Angel Castillo, Chris Barragan and Bart Blair.

Incumbent Mayor Mike Caldwell opted not to run again in 2023.

Seats set to be vacated on the City Council also attracted large crowds of candidates. District 4 — which saw council member Nadolski opt to run for mayor — has five candidates who have filed, including Dave Graf, Austin Raymond, Steven Van Wagoner, Alexander Castagno and Sebastian Benitez.

At-large council member Luis Lopez opted against running for reelection this year. The open seat attracted six filings from Katie Matheson, John Thompson, Julez Garcia, Lara Gale, J. Levi Andersen and Shaun Myers.

In contrast to the crowded races, incumbent council member Richard Hyer is the sole filing in District 2.

In the case of contested races, the top two vote-getters in the primary will move on to the general election.

Prompted by the resignation of U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, Utah municipal elections are planned to be moved back — three weeks later in the case of the primary election, and two weeks for the general election — at the request of Gov. Spencer Cox. Weber County Clerk/Auditor Ricky Hatch told the Standard-Examiner that a final decision would come from the Legislature on Wednesday. If the move is approved, the primary election would occur Sept. 5 while the general election would be slated for Nov. 21.

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