"This is a grass-roots effort," said Hartley, who as the GOP state director has organized party mass meetings across the state before.

"This is not just a Republican effort. We want anyone and everyone to come and learn the facts about how vouchers will work. When they do, we believe they will support the voucher program" and vote against the referendum that would repeal vouchers, said Hartley.

"We felt that this debate should include (GOP) legislators who passed the law," added Hughes, who got to know Byrne after running a bill that would dedicate a certain percent of all education funding for classrooms, another one of the Overstock.com boss' pet projects.

"This is the only way we can reach out to our constituents, telling them why we passed this law, plead our case, and make the case for vouchers," said Hughes.

Big spending

A review by the newspaper of several voucher PICs found that more than $3 million has been spent, or soon will be, on the voucher referendum battle. (PICs report spending about $2.5 million so far, and at least another $500,000 donated by the National Education Association — a national teacher union — is being held by the Utah Education Association and should go into the battle soon.)

About half the total — $1.53 million — has come from the NEA, a pro-public education group that opposes vouchers. The voucher fight in Utah has become a national issue, with other states watching closely to see how it fares here, possibly to follow suit.

Other large donors in the battle include Byrne, who has given $290,000 this year to pro-voucher groups ($200,000 to the leaders' PIC, the rest to Parents For Choice in Education, the main pro-voucher group).

That means Byrne gave about 10 percent of all money put into the battle this year just by himself. In recent years, Byrne has been the largest individual donor in Utah politics. That likely did not hurt him when he persuaded the GOP-run Legislature, in a special session, to pass a special stock reform law that he sought a few years ago.

New York investor Thomas L. Kempner Jr. gave $50,000 to pro-voucher forces, about 2 percent of the total spent.

The UEA gave another $44,133 to fight vouchers (not counting money from the NEA for which it served as a conduit to the main anti-voucher group Utahns for Public Schools).

But exact sources for about $400,000 flowing into the race cannot be determined because some groups on both sides of the issue are taking advantage of loopholes in Utah election law.