At one time, Creamer, like Semnani, claimed a close association with Utah leaders. (Although I remember when he was asked not to step foot into the governor's office for a while because reportedly Creamer kept telling legislators that the then-chief executive wanted this or that when the governor really didn't.)

Creamer came into Utah political view in the 1980s, when as a principle in Creamer & Noble engineers he got involved in a number of high profile road-building projects.

In the late 1980s, he was a consulting engineer on the ill-fated syn-crete concrete patch repair program on Utah freeways. syn-crete failed in major patchings on I-15, costing the state millions of dollars in extra work, newspaper reports at the time showed.

When I wrote a 1991 series of articles on the state of legislative campaign disclosure, lobbyist registration and gift-giving on Capitol Hill, Creamer was listed by his colleagues of one of the most powerful lobbyists on the Hill.

Creamer's public profile has decreased since, as he took on a variety of other business challenges, including becoming a minor owner (but influential partner) of the former East Carbon Development Corp.'s huge private dump outside of Price, Carbon County.

After selling out of that venture in the mid-1990s, Creamer has stayed active in various waste/construction projects.

More recently, Creamer has run companies that use fly ash, a burned byproduct in coal-fired operations, like power plants, in innovative ways. Just several months ago, the Morning News listed Creamer as taking out a patent on using fly ash in concrete production.

As the words of the old Who song hint, running a high-profile waste firm in Utah — a firm whose very existence depends on good relations with the state's political elite — requires staying active in political giving and lobbying.

Semnani has been there, done that. And so has Creamer.

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Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com