But reform efforts have made no headway at the Legislature in recent years.

Big cash

Legislators who won their races raised $3.74 million in their latest elections, up from $2.7 million two years ago. Of that, $3.58 million came from special interests or the candidates' own pockets.

That means 95.7 percent of their money came from special interests or their own pockets this year, compared to 81.5 percent two years ago.

For its study, the Morning News defined special interests as corporations and their officers, lobbyists, trade and union groups, political action committees and people living outside a member's district. Political party groups were included as special interests because they in turn receive most of their money from special-interest groups.

Special-interest money is so plentiful that 30 members did not raise any money from regular constituents.

Also, the Morning News found that 87 of the 104 legislators raised more than 90 percent of their money from special interests (see chart). The least raised by any individual was 64.3 percent by Sen. Fred Fife, in a 2004 race.

Some legislators significantly increased the amounts they accepted from special interests. For example, while Rep. Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake, had the lowest percentage of special-interest money among House members this year at 71.7 percent, that was vastly higher than the 19.8 percent of her total that had come from special interests two years ago.

McGee was targeted for defeat this election by both Republicans and a pro-school-choice group, and so needed to raise more funds than usual.

The biggest donors

Some individual donors give much more than others, and a small core of them provided a significant share of the overall campaign money that went to election campaign winners.

The individual group that gave the most to new legislators was the Utah Association of Realtors ($162,500); followed by the Utah Banking Association ($70,400); Reagan Outdoor Advertising ($63,150); Parents for Choice in Education ($55,133); and the Utah Education Association (the teacher's union), $49,818. (See related chart).

The Utah Association of Realtors itself provided about 4 percent of all money raised by legislators. The Top 10 groups provided 17 percent of all money raised. The top 50 provided just under half of all money raised (46 percent to be exact).

Chris Kyler, CEO of the Utah Association of Realtors, said a few other groups may have given more to all legislative candidates in 2006, but the Realtors happened to give the most to those who won.