Utah Legislature: Panel guts bill to cap campaign contributions

SALT LAKE CITY — A House committee gutted a proposed bill that would have capped campaign contributions for state candidates.

The original HB329 was based on recommendations from the Governor's Commission on Strengthening Democracy, which proposed a series of reforms designed to increase voter participation.

Committee members argued that limiting donations restricts free speech and does not decrease corruption.

Rep. Craig Frank, R-Cedar Hills, proposed a substitute bill that removed any donation limits. Frank was a member of the democracy commission and voted to approve the commission's recommendations, but he said he has since changed his mind.

While he said he agrees with the commission that contributions "facilitate speech," Frank said he rejects the commission's other assertion that "money has a capacity to corrupt and to present the appearance of corruption."

"I did not see empirical data to support the commission's findings," he said.

Frank presented an article by the Center for Competitive Politics, an organization that has fought campaign finance regulations across the country.

The article argued that donation caps do not necessarily mean less corruption. Other opponents of the limits called them "arbitrary" and meaningless.

Gov. Gary Herbert has expressed opposition to restrictive campaign contribution limits, and Frank said he shared the governor's concern that such limits would keep low-income candidates from running.

The committee approved the substitute bill 6-3, with the original bill's sponsor, Rep. Ben Ferry, R-Corinne, voting against it. It now goes to the full House for consideration.

e-mail: jsmith@desnews.com