Lobbyists violating Utah law

Some lobbyists registered with the Utah Legislature are lobbying lawmakers in favor of or against specific leadership candidates — an action prohibited by law.

"There is no doubt that some lobbyists play a heavy role in leadership elections," says retiring House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, who is not among the candidates standing for top posts in Tuesday night internal elections where a new House speaker, Senate president and other leaders will be chosen.

"But I don't know what more can be done" to stop the practice, says Stephens. He says when push comes to shove, legislators won't file complaints against the lobbyists as internal House rules require for formal action to be taken.

Utah Bankers Association president Howard Headlee said Monday that last week he "suspended for a day" former Utah House member and current lobbyist Mont Evans as Headlee tried to run down a complaint that Evans had improperly lobbied GOP House members to support House Majority Leader Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, for the speakership post. Evans didn't, said Headlee.

Curtis is running against Rep. Dave Ure, R-Kamas, for the top House job.

And Dave Wilson, the one-man office for the Utah Building and Construction Trade Council, sent out an e-mail to 48 GOP House members asking them to vote for Ure. Wilson said he was unaware such lobbying was illegal.

"Most lobbyist aren't as foolish as to put it in writing," said Stephens, who won three straight two-year terms as speaker after being narrowly eliminated in a speakership race in the mid-1990s.

"I screwed up. I feel bad about it," said Wilson of his pro-Ure e-mail. "I've only registered up there for two years — we hire some other lobbyists for most of our work — and no one told me I couldn't do this."

"It has even gotten so blatant," said Stephens, "that one member was going to have a (fellow Republican) file against him for his House seat, but a lobbyist said if he would support so-and-so for speaker in the next leadership election, (the lobbyist) could get that challenger out of the race."

Stephens says leadership candidates don't pursue the matter, even though they could. The winners want the intraparty wounds to heal while the losers just want to get on with their legislative careers and maybe run for leadership again, so they don't want to make too many waves. "I don't know if the House and Senate can do anything more to stop it," said Stephens, who sees the violations as serious and harmful.