Legislature can't handle its own ethical challenges

As more and more background information comes forth in the ethics matter of state Rep. Greg Hughes, one finds that good ol' political dealmaking was part of the process.

In fact, before formal charges were filed against Hughes by three House Democrats, it's clear to me that some GOP House members tried to sidetrack the complaint, stopping it completely in return for a promise of ethics reform in the 2009 Legislature, or at the very least, delaying the complaint until after the Nov. 4 election. (I've seen no evidence that Hughes himself was part of these attempts.)

As this column goes to press Thursday, the House Ethics Committee, after a week of secret hearings, has not issued a decision on the six counts against Hughes, R-Draper.

And if it turns out that the bipartisan committee clears Hughes in all charges, or through a split vote can't reach a decision on Hughes, then the House members' actions may prove justified.

I mean, why put a colleague through the public ethics wringer just before his re-election if, indeed, it turns out that he did nothing that rose to the level of an ethics violation? Raw, mean partisan politics would be the accusation laid on the Democratic complainants.

But, on the other hand, if the Ethics Committee finds Hughes culpable of some ethics breach — even if it results only in a hand-slapping censure — then those who tried to sidetrack the complaint have something to answer for, I believe.

It is sad — although understandable, given the current political/ethical standards of the Utah Legislature — that even when attempts are made to bring some portion of ethical accountability into play, that that attempt in itself must be pulled through the power-political strainer.

Yet, it is clear from documents I've seen that Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, believes she was offered political deals if she would dump the Hughes complaint, or at least postpone it until after next month's elections. Allen rejected all such offers, it appears.

And it turned out that Allen didn't have the power to stop the complaint — but she did end up not signing it. Only Democratic Reps. Phil Riesen, Roz McGee and Neil Hansen signed the complaint.

But Allen was a clear mover in bringing various people together on the main charge against Hughes: that he offered former GOP Rep. Susan Lawrence tens of thousands of dollars in campaign money in 2006 if Lawrence would either switch her vote on private school vouchers or, at the very least, walk off the House floor and not vote on an upcoming voucher bill in the 2007 Legislature.