Rolly: Are your campaign contributions funding new suits and baby-sitters?

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE; September 5, 2008

by Paul Rolly

Utah might be one of the most conservative states in the nation, but it has one of the most liberal laws governing how campaign contributions can be spent by the candidates. In fact, that law is so liberal, it practically doesn't exist.

The Deseret News published an analysis several months ago showing that a third of the $827,000 that state legislators raised from special interests for their campaigns was spent on such things as clothes, car repairs, babysitting, wedding gifts and, sometimes, in direct cash payment to themselves.

It's all perfectly legal, since it's up to the Legislature to determine what restrictions should apply to campaign contributions (federal campaign contributions must be spent on political campaigns). And the lawmakers apparently like it just the way it is.

But sometimes the laxity in the law can create confusion. A glance at Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's campaign finance disclosure forms for 2008 shows why. Shurtleff has a $241,000 balance in his campaign account, much of it from special interests and law firms that seek state contracts from the A.G.

So far, about $11,000 of those campaign funds have been spent on Shurtleff himself, although he says all the expenditures are campaign related. The recipient of dozens of the campaign expenditures in Shurtleff's disclosure report is listed simply as Shurtleff, for "travel expenses." But many of those entries are for even-dollar amounts. He lists the same amount - $125 - on April 30, May 7 and May 21, each with the same terse explanation. Other "travel expense" entries are for the round numbers of $300, $200 and $100.

Besides these payments to himself, Shurtleff has many entries that detail campaign expenses such as gasoline fill-ups at service stations, restaurants and hotels, and those amounts are for what you would expect on a travel expense report, in dollars and cents.

Shurtleff's campaign also has paid more than $200 for cell phone fees, even in the months before campaigning began. And there are entries for clothing - a total of $714 at Men's Wearhouse and Mr. R. Menswear - as well as $486.68 for a "wireless reading device" from Amazon, $500 for "membership fees" to Ducks Unlimited, $406.79 for a GPS system and $52.85 to Argus Search for "research fees."

Shurtleff says the even-dollar entries made out to himself are simply a result of his habit of taking cash to different political events like county conventions or Republican Party Lincoln Day fund-raising events. Those expenditures are in addition to travel expenses like hotels and restaurants, he says, so he can have money to make contributions to the local parties and other incidentals that may come up.

The cell phone fees are mostly for his campaign aides, he says, and the "Ducks Unlimited" expenditure was a contribution to that organization, even though it was listed as membership fees. "I'm not a hunter," he says.

The electronic reading device enables him to keep up with all the news on-line, he says. His campaign also paid $266.95 to Brookstone for "headphones."

Shurtleff's campaign paid $2,800 to his wife for "bookkeeping fees" and $45 to South Valley Lock & Key when he locked his keys in his car before a speaking engagement.

While Shurtleff has explanations for the expenses, the way they are listed illustrates how any candidate, if so inclined, could easily spend the money for any reason and list it as a campaign expense.

And why not? This lighter-than-air law allows you to spend campaign donations any way you want, because that's the way the Utah Legislature wants it.

(c) 2008 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved.