Ex-speaker's run is rife with ironies

In politics, sometimes rumor becomes fact, if only for a short while.

Former Utah House Speaker Mel Brown, who is running for the state Senate this year after being out of the Legislature for four years, worked as a lobbyist during the 2004 session for Qwest, Utah's largest telephone company.

Brown, 66, has been a contract lobbyist since resigning his Midvale House seat in late 2000, so his client list would not normally raise eyebrows.

But an alleged lobbyist job offer by US WEST, which became Qwest several years ago, was at the heart of a political and personal scandal that drove Brown from the powerful speaker's post in 1998. And when Brown left office in 2000 and became a lobbyist, then-Qwest bosses said they would not be hiring him.

Later, a new generation of executives at the telecommunications giant did hire Brown.

"Frankly, the (history of Brown and Qwest) didn't even occur to me when we hired him," said Jerry Fenn, the new president of Qwest of Utah.

Fenn is a former state liquor commissioner who was a contract lobbyist for the LDS Church for several years before taking the top Qwest post in Utah last fall.

"Mel joined a group of (contract Qwest) lobbyists toward the end of the last general session when we needed some help" on a controversial UTOPIA telecommunications bill working its way through the House and Senate. Brown is no longer on retainer for Qwest, said Fenn.

"We don't anticipate renewing his contract. He's not with us now. And I wouldn't be interested in (hiring) a state senator" as a lobbyist, said Fenn, should Brown, a Republican, win his bid for the Senate District 19, which covers parts of Weber, Morgan and Summit counties.

Brown chuckled when asked about the irony of working for the company that played a role in his political demise years ago.

"I am not working for them now," he said. "The last 10 days of the session, Qwest brought a great number of lobbyists on board regarding the UTOPIA bill, and that is something I feel pretty strongly about, so I said, 'Sure.' "

Brown was arguably the most powerful man in the 104-member, part-time Legislature when his personal and political life crumbled in 1998.