Cash flow a torrent in Provo races

PROVO — Candidates for three seats on Provo's City Council spent nearly seven times more money than was spent on campaigns for the same seats four years ago, according to an analysis conducted by the Deseret Morning News.

Last week, the paper reported that mayoral candidates Lewis Billings and Dave Bailey combined to spend $150,000, more than double what the same two men spent four years ago. But in relative numbers, that increase was nothing compared to the council races.

Four years ago, the finalists for the three council seats spent $10,000. This year, those same three races cost nearly $70,000.

"Pretty amazing," said council chairwoman Cynthia Dayton, who spent less than $2,500 to beat an incumbent in 2003 and wasn't part of this year's election. "We've obviously moved to a different era in campaign contributions and the races in general."

The heavy spending has led some to suggest the city should consider limits on campaign spending, but court rulings make that unlikely, said Boyd Ferguson, senior city attorney for Salt Lake City.

"It's a free speech issue," Ferguson said. "The courts understand that you need money to say things these days."

Salt Lake City is the only municipality in Utah to attempt to curb spending, said David Church, attorney for the Utah League of Cities and Towns, but officials learned they could only limit contributions. The City Council passed an ordinance that caps a donor's contributions to a council candidate at $1,500 every four years and $7,500 to a mayoral candidate.

"The courts have found that restricting expenditures was a more direct hindrance of a person's speech," Ferguson said. "There's not as much of a hindrance on the contribution side."

A $1,500 limit on contributions would have affected only two Provo candidates, George Stewart and Mark Sumsion, who faced each other in the race for the a citywide council seat. Each man accepted a $5,000 donation and Stewart, who won, had two $2,000 donations to one for Sumsion.

In the mayoral race, incumbent and victor Lewis Billings collected $25,000 — 26 percent of his total — from businessman Hal Wing. Dave Bailey got $15,000 — 27 percent of his campaign contributions — from the Provo firefighters union.

Most of the councilmembers are interested in exploring the issue and one, Midge Johnson, has requested a study session.

"This spending is going to discourage any average citizen from running for council or mayor," she said. "I just thought it totally went out of hand."

The competitive nature of this year's races was the main reason more cash flowed in and out of candidate bank accounts.