From Deseret News archives:
Amendment 3 foe files a complaint
State looking into charges involving campaign funding
Scott McCoy, manager of the Don't Amend Alliance, which opposed the state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, has filed a letter of complaint against Utahns for a Better Tomorrow (UBT), and the nonprofit corporation, Marriage Education Initiatives (MEI).
McCoy alleges that MEI was formed solely to circumvent state campaign finance laws by hiding donors to UBT.
"Other than its brief two-day flurry of incorporating and contributing, MEI has had no discernible activity," McCoy said in a letter to Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
MEI donated $50,000 an in-kind contribution to UBT on Oct. 18 the day it incorporated and $120,000 the day after, according to a report filed with the Utah Elections Office.
Monte Stewart, co-chairman of UBT, said Friday that he had not seen a copy of McCoy's complaint but did say he was confident his campaign had fully complied with the law.
MEI corporate trustee Neal Blair, could not be reached for immediate comment. McCoy's letter questioned Blair's connections to UBT, noting he was a contact on that organization's Web site.
Shurtleff said it was his office's duty to investigate such complaints to ensure that campaign finance laws are enforced "so people will have faith in the system . . . We've got to have an absolutely open, fair, transparent process."
State elections director Michael Cragun, was unavailable for comment. In October, former elections director Amy Naccarato, said it appeared that MEI may have found a loophole, since corporations don't have to report their funding sources, as do political entities such as political action committees or political issue committees.
McCoy told the Deseret Morning news that he didn't know whether or not the two entities had violated the law, but "this certainly violates the spirit of the law.
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