Both sides making quiet voucher moves

Utah's powerful Republican legislative leaders have quietly formed a political issue committee aimed at defeating a referendum on November's ballot that would repeal a private school tuition voucher law passed by the 2007 Legislature.

That is not the only quiet move in the voucher battle. Loopholes in Utah campaign law are also allowing some groups on both sides of the fight to hide exactly who is providing hundreds of thousands of dollars of their funding.

The state's voucher law would provide tuition payments of between $500 to $3,000 per child, based on parents' income, to private schools. An anti-voucher citizen referendum petition drive last spring was successful, and the question of whether to repeal the new law will be on the November ballot.

With anti-voucher sentiment winning in recent public opinion polls in Utah, the GOP legislative leaders decided to take action to "educate citizens" on what the voucher law would really do, said Jeff Hartley, who has been hired by the Informed Voter Project PIC to run the leaders' campaign.

The legislative leaders' PIC persuaded pro-voucher businessman Patrick Byrne, president of Overstock.com, to donate $200,000 to fund its operations. So far, Byrne is the only donor to that PIC, but Hartley says it hopes to raise at least another $100,000 before the election.

Hartley, a former executive director of the Utah Republican Party, said more pledges have been made. Some of those pledges come from several dozen lobbyists whom the GOP leaders recently called together and asked for cash to oppose the referendum. Those lobbyists' organizations helped write a business-backed education reform plan, which included vouchers.

Hartley said the PIC was formed in August by Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem; Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo; Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem; House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy; House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara; and Reps. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George; and Greg Hughes, R-Draper. The leaders' PIC has nothing to do with a pro-voucher radio advertisement now being investigated by the attorney general's office for not properly registering with the state.

The leaders' PIC strategy is to identify likely voters in the November election, send them mailers and auto-dialed telephone calls asking them to attend a local town-hall meeting hosted by their pro-voucher GOP state senator and/or House members, said Hartley. Half a dozen meetings have already been held, and all 29 Senate districts will be targeted for at least one such affair.