GOP opposing plan to ease donation rule

A proposal that would allow Salt Lake County candidates to accept campaign donations from contractors who do work with the county has a Republican leader talking about bringing the issue to a public vote.

The change is part of a campaign finance reform proposal being pushed by county Councilwoman Jenny Wilson that would put a $2,000 cap on campaign donations. The current $5,000 limit was put into place last year by then-Deputy Mayor Alan Dayton in the last days of former Mayor Nancy Workman's administration.

Wilson has proposed removing Dayton's prohibition on county contractors contributing to political campaigns. That measure was a major component of Dayton's ethics reforms before he left office.

But Wilson told the Deseret Morning News the provision is potentially unfair and too confusing, raising questions of who is considered a county contractor.

That has county Republican Party chairman James Evans accusing Wilson and Mayor Peter Corroon — both Democrats — of backtracking on their pledge to clean up county government.

"We haven't even gone through an election cycle. The fact that the Democrats are leading the charge to repeal the ban is because Peter Corroon is anxious to start raising money," Evans said. "That flies in the face of their public statements of reforming county government. They're talking about trying to restore the confidence in county government, (but) this is just taking us one step backward to business as usual, to back-scratching."

But Corroon said Evans is just plain wrong.

"It's complete nonsense," he said. "I actually gave the council a proposal that would leave the contractor language in there but just define what a contractor is. It has nothing to do with me."

And Wilson agreed, saying she came to her version of the reforms after working with an advisory group of citizens. "I have not had any direct marching orders by Peter — or any indirect orders," Wilson said.

If the proposal passes at today's council meeting, Evans said he will seek to bring the issue to a voter referendum to "let the voters in Salt Lake County make it absolutely clear that they don't want contractors" donating to campaigns.

"Clearly the centerpiece of this is repealing the contractor ban," he said. "That puts the county leaders back in the same boat as being corrupt and subject to undue influence. How is that cleaning up county government?"

But Wilson said the contractor ban seemed unfair and arbitrary.