Walker is a two-term GOP state House member from Sandy and a former midlevel manager at Zions Bank whose job (before he resigned in March to run for office full time) was trying to sign up local governments to invest their public funds through the bank.

Ellis is a former state budget director under two governors who for some time has been working as chief deputy treasurer, investing the state's billions of dollars. His boss, treasurer Ed Alter, is retiring from office after 28 years.

Walker is backed by powerful GOP officeholders, like Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and most of the GOP legislative leadership. Ellis is backed by Alter and former GOP Gov. Olene Walker, among others.

It is illegal for a candidate to offer something of value to another candidate in return for that candidate's withdrawal from a race, I'm told. So, if true, Walker should not have offered Ellis a job and a raise in return for Ellis not running for treasurer.

Walker denies any wrongdoing, saying he only told Ellis that he wouldn't fire anyone in the treasurer's office should he win, thus putting good employees' worried minds at ease.

But here's the rub: Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, refused to act on Ellis' complaint against Walker. Herbert, by law, is the state's chief election officer. Herbert is supposed to review election-related complaints, and if he finds any merit to them, pass them along to Shurtleff's office for investigation and perhaps criminal charges. Herbert said he wouldn't act now because any action by him could affect the June 24 GOP treasurer's primary.

Ellis even went to the Utah Supreme Court, asking justices to order Herbert to act. The court refused to do so.

Regardless of whether Ellis or Walker are in the right here, this mess clearly shows that Herbert — or any lieutenant governor — should not be Utah's election officer. The law should be changed to take that power and responsibility away from a partisan-elected office.

At the very least, the state Elections Office should be run by a state merit employee — not even someone appointed by the governor.

The best solution would be to set up an independent state ethics office and give that office the job of running state elections — along with other duties, like investigating complaints about elected state officials.

The conflict of interest of Herbert this year is clear. Citizens would be better served if a partisan official has nothing to do with running state elections or dealing with the complaints of wrongdoing that sometimes accompany them.

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Deseret News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com.