Campaign funds for clothes, nannies?

As he retired from four years in the Legislature, former Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, had $13,741 left in his campaign account. He paid $10,000 to himself and $3,741 to his wife for unspecified "reimbursements."

"I want to hold it in reserve in case I run for office again. So it's just sitting in another account for now," he said about plans for the money. But Utah law allows him to spend it any way he wants.

Several other legislators who left office last year followed suit — pocketing thousands of dollars of leftover campaign money. Other lawmakers do not wait to retire to convert campaign money to personal uses that benefit themselves, family or friends.

Disclosure forms show such spending ranges from paying apartment rent to buying suits and shirts, freeway HOV-lane passes, baby-sitting, dry cleaning and personal passports.

That is legal in Utah but may be questionable because recent analyses show that up to 95 percent of campaign funds come from special interests with business before the Legislature. By contrast, federal law bans members of Congress from spending their campaign money for personal use.

Legislation that would place similar restrictions on Utah lawmakers has been introduced from time to time in recent years, but it never proceeded far. A bill in the 2007 Legislature, sponsored by House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, aimed to provide some broad restrictions, including giving campaign cash to oneself when leaving office. It died without even a public hearing.

Meanwhile, a computer-assisted review by the Deseret Morning News shows that of the $3.8 million that current legislators spent in their last campaigns, about $1 of every $5 went for items that personally benefited themselves, family or friends.

Some of that would be allowed even under stricter federal rules. Allowable would be at least $550,000 the legislators made in donations to fellow politicians and parties, $37,000 paid for mobile phones, $94,000 in donations to charities (such as their churches or Boy Scouts), $26,750 to pay relatives for campaign work and $108,500 for travel (including trips to China, Vietnam and Germany).

More questionable would be at least $41,750 that they spent on clearly personal items and services, along with $33,000 on gifts and $22,000 on digital cameras, TVs and computers for campaigns that could easily be converted to personal use afterward.

Reducing sacrifices

Some of Utah's 104 part-time lawmakers say such use of campaign funds helps reduce the sacrifices they make to serve, or that it helps them serve better.