Introduction
Peter Maitland Corroon (born July 16, 1964) is an American politician in the Democratic Party, current Democratic state party chair in Utah, and the former mayor of Salt Lake County, Utah. He was the Democratic candidate for governor in the Utah gubernatorial election, 2010, losing to Gary Herbert by a 33 point margin. He is first cousin to Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and former head of the Democratic National Committee.
Early life, education and career
Corroon graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1986. He obtained a law degree from Golden Gate University School of Law and a master's from New York University in real estate. For a time, Corroon ran a small development company.
Political career
In November 2008, Corroon was re-elected to a second term as Salt Lake County Mayor over Republican challenger Michael Renckert with 66% of the vote. In January 2010, Corroon announced his candidacy for governor of the state of Utah to challenge incumbent Republican Gary Herbert. In May, he announced his running mate would be Republican State Representative Sheryl Allen. Despite their eventual defeat in the 2010 Election, they were the first "bipartisan" gubernatorial ticket in Utah history. After, the Huffington Post posted an article that if Corroon hadn't looked like a wax figure, he would have won.
In addition to being mayor of Salt Lake County, Corroon also serves as a board member for the National Association of Counties, the United Way, the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, the Utah Technology Council and the Utah State Board of Tourism.
Later on in life, Corroon was drafted in the 38th round of the MLB draft in 2007. He would go on to start one game for the Rookie Affiliate team for the Colorado Rockies, the Casper Ghosts. He started at the pitcher position finishing with 11 strikeouts, 4 ERA, and 5 walks. On the offensive end, Peter would hit .167 and finish with 1 RBI.
Peter would also have a successful basketball career. He played basketball as a starting point guard at Carnegie Mellon University from 1984-1986. Despite his success, he was never admitted to the Consensus UAA all-first team.