From Deseret News archives:

Huntsman drops lobbyist

Published: Sunday, June 24, 2007 12:17 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has opted not to renew the state's contract with a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

The state had hired Bill Simmons in the Washington office of Dutko Worldwide to focus on fighting the Private Fuel Storage nuclear waste site planned for Tooele County. Money that would have been spent on the contract will be reserved to use if needed to travel to Washington to discuss specific issues.

"Dutko was hired to specifically address nuclear waste," said Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley. "The governor certainly feels that we've come to a point with PFS that we've moved beyond that issue, and it was a great success."

After Huntsman took office in 2005, he closed the state's two-person Washington, D.C., office and put out a bid for lobbying services.

The state signed the $90,000 annual contract in August 2005 with Dutko that expired on May 31, according to a copy provided by the governor's office. Now the state will rely on the congressional delegation to represent its interests.

Story continues below
"The system should work with the governor's office working closely with the congressional delegation. We have five offices in Washington," Roskelley said, referring to Utah's three House members and two senators. "More than anything, the contract's up, so the governor had made the decision that it didn't need to be renewed."

There is a pending bill in Congress that would create a fourth seat for Utah, which the state is likely to get anyway after the 2010 Census.

Last fall, federal agencies disapproved a lease that allowed PFS to use tribal land and also refused to grant the rights of way needed for transporting nuclear waste through the state to the site.

In 2005, Congress approved the Cedar Mountain Wilderness Area, designed to protect military training mission at the Utah Test and Training Range as well as cut off PFS's preferred railroad starting point to its proposed nuclear waste storage site

The decision doesn't mean the state will never hire another lobbyist, Roskelley said. "We don't need it right now. But if something some up, we'll look into it," she said. "If we have another issue like PFS, then maybe we will pull out all the stops. ... Right now, we don't feel this is detrimental to the state by any means."

Simmons, who worked for former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, said it is the nature of the lobbying business to get a client, work on a specific problem and then move on to something else.

"We finished what we were hired to do," Simmons said, comparing it to hiring a lawyer to work on a specific case.

"It was a great pleasure to work with the governor and his team," Simmons said. "It was a wonderful experience."


E-mail: lisa@desnews.com; suzanne@desnews.com

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

previousnext

Latest comments

Max Hall wants to look ahead

Better have a back up job. NFL doesn't look that promising.

The National championship in college football doesn't always produce a true...

jeff, you said: 'there is no such thing as a "patriotic lib" ' We could...

Put up a consistantly rated team that makes its way up to one of the top two...

What's cooking

Viking cooking (Sugarhouse) school is featured on youtube type--UtahHG

KM | 8:16 a.m. Dec. 8, 2009 I did listen to Beck's show from last night....

Snow brings big chill

Lucky I live in Hawaii. No global warming debate here! Every day the...

Hall finished 2-1 against ur Utes and you have to live with that fact. Oh and...

AMEN!

High school girls basketball rankings

102 pts in a highschool game?? are you kidding me?? third highest score in...

Advertisements