Salt Lake County clerk playing favorites?

The chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party is accusing the Democratic Salt Lake County clerk of forcing Republican candidates to fix minor flaws in their campaign reports while letting Democrats' lapses slide.

"It's clear they only scrutinize Republicans," said James Evans, chairman of the county Republican Party.

Evans said Wednesday that county clerk Sherrie Swensen has been quick to send back reports for Republicans to correct, yet has ignored similar problems in reports filed by Sim Gill, a Democrat running for district attorney.

Swensen's chief deputy, Jason Yocom, denied the accusations. When asked if the clerk's office overly scrutinizes Republican reports while ignoring Democratic errors, Yocom said, "Absolutely not."

Yocom cited a decision made Wednesday as proof. Swensen eliminated Kim Lundeberg, the Democratic candidate for surveyor, from the race for not filing his financial disclosure form on time. That leaves Republican Reid Demman as the lone candidate in the surveyor race.

"You can't claim politics if we didn't put a Democrat on the ballot," Yocom said.

Even so, Evans said the clerk's office is letting Democratic slip-ups slide through, while ganging up on Republicans. The clerk's office notified Sheriff Aaron Kennard, a Republican seeking re-election in November, that his June financial-disclosure report was out of compliance. Yocom said Kennard had taken donations from individuals over the $2,000 limit.

Carrie Dickson, the Republican candidate for county clerk, also got a letter back in April pointing out an error in her financial-disclosure report. She said she forgot to list the address of one of the people who donated more than $200 to her campaign.

But Gill never got a letter, despite three separate financial-disclosure reports that omitted employment information about multiple donors.

If a donor contributes $200 or more to a campaign, candidates must disclose the donor's occupation and employer. Gill had multiple donors over the $200 mark, yet only listed occupation and omitted where they worked. Reports filed in April, June and September were all filed with the errors, yet the clerk's office never notified Gill of the problem.

Evans said Gill should have known and complied with the law, instead of waiting for the clerk's office to tell him about the problem.

"He wants to be the chief county prosecutor and he can't even follow county ordinance," Evans said. "He should be following the law."

Gill did not return several phone calls seeking comment Wednesday.

Yocom said it was just a mistake.

"Our job is to look over the reports and make sure that on their face they appear to conform with the law," Yocom said. "If we miss something, then we missed it."

Yocom wrote a letter to Gill informing him of the problem after the Deseret Morning News called the clerk's office to ask about the oversight.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com