Reform hits hard in Utah

Utah's two main political parties — the Republicans and the Democrats — have lost some of their political clout through federal campaign finance reform because millions of dollars no longer flow through their coffers, a new study shows.

A new nationwide report by The Institute on Money in State Politics shows that with the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act — which applied for the first time to the 2004 elections — state parties can no longer get millions of dollars in "soft money" from their national party colleagues.

While the money came with instructions to spend the cash on this or that race, it was up to local parties to decide the message and best use of the money.

"Yeah, at some levels we have less influence," says Todd Taylor, newly rehired executive director of the Utah Democratic Party.

"State parties are not nearly as wealthy as in the past," said Spencer Jenkins, state GOP executive director.

Since 2000, the Utah Democratic Party has seen its overall donations drop by 65 percent. Republicans have seen their donations down by 49 percent, the study shows.

Especially in the hotly contested re-elections of Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in the 2nd Congressional District, local party leaders have lost the power to funnel big bucks here and there.

"We've always done fairly well in (state party) fund raising" — outside of national party donations — said Taylor, who after an 18-month absence is now back in the position he held for a decade. "Now we have to do better."

The study, which can be found at www.followthemoney.org, concludes that the finance reform "effectively cut millions of dollars (from) state political parties, which had grown increasingly reliant on the national parties for a significant source of their funds."

It's clear that in recent years the state Democratic Party — under then-chairman Donald Dunn in 2003-2004 — has not keep pace with the majority Republican Party, which historically has had more access to cash, both through a larger donation base and because the party has more wealthy donors.

For example, in the big election year of 2000 (there were presidential, senatorial and gubernatorial races, as well as a tightly contested 2nd District race), the Utah GOP took in $1.77 million. Democrats weren't far behind with $1.72 million.

In the non-presidential elections of 2002, Utah Republicans collected $1.3 million. But Democrats were down to $781,000.