Merit had been turned down twice before for IAF grants, Lampropoulos said Tuesday. But Hansen said that was inaccurate, because in 1991 and 1993 when Lampropoulos believed he'd applied, the "very limited" grants were going only to out-of-state firms. "There was no way he could have fit into any grant category back then, even if he did formally apply," said Hansen.

"I don't question that Marty didn't contact the board," said Geddes. "But it makes you wonder after Merit was turned down twice and then they hire the sitting speaker of the House and they get the grant. It makes the public question it; I do."

In any case, Merit did a good job on the application this time around. In January, Lampropoulos hired Greg Fredde, a well-known business lobbyist who had previously worked for the Utah Taxpayer Association and the Utah Mining Association, as Merit's government affairs director and assigned him the IAF application.

Lampropoulos and Fredde met with board members, put together an extensive proposal and "basically convinced the board this was a worthy project," said Stephens, who added that before Lampropoulos brought up the perceived out-of-state business bias toward IAF grants in the gubernatorial campaign, he as speaker was "unaware of the concern" that Utah businesses were not getting a fair share of state grant money to create new jobs here.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com