Will Greene's past be an issue for voters?

It's anyone's guess whether Enid Greene's political past will have an impact on Nolan Karras' primary election chances next month.

But subtle hints are coming out of the Jon Huntsman Jr. campaign that Greene could become an issue.

If you recall, Greene was elected to the U.S. House from the 2nd Congressional District in 1994. She had lost a close race to Democrat Karen Shepherd for the same seat in 1992.

Greene married Joe Waldholtz just before the 1994 contest, softened her appearance and campaign rhetoric and unseated then-Rep. Shepherd in a bitter three-way contest that saw then-independent Merrill Cook in the race as well.

Greene put more than $1 million of what voters thought was her own money into the 1994 race. Asked at the time where it came from, Greene said she and Joe had been "blessed" and were using family funds.

It was generally assumed that the money was Waldholtz's, who professed to be a millionaire from Pittsburgh.

It turned out, when Greene's personal and political life fell apart in 1995, that the money was actually her father's, funneled into the campaign illegally by Waldholtz, who was her campaign finance chairman.

I'm simplifying things here for brevity. But in a long, tearful press conference in Salt Lake City, Greene said that she knew the cash came from her father, Forrest Greene, but that Joe had assured her that a "trade of assets" between Waldholtz and Forrest Greene — a trade that was Enid's idea (she is also an attorney) — was legal. It wasn't.

Waldholtz went to jail on fraud charges unrelated to the campaign. (He went back to jail this month for cheating the estates of dead relatives.)

Neither Greene nor her father ever was charged with a crime. And Greene professed she'd been duped by Waldholtz, whom she promptly divorced.

Greene, her father and two of her campaign organizations did, however, agree to pay a combined $100,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission years later over the whole mess.

Greene did not run for re-election in 1996. And the seat, ironically, was won by Cook, who had rejoined the Republican Party.

Several years ago Greene started working her way back into Utah public life. She held a few appointed positions in the Salt Lake County Republican Party; rumors floated that she was considering running for local partisan office, like county mayor or council.