Utah Realtors Association a powerful lobby group

Even in these tough times in the housing market, the Utah Association of Realtors is still one of the most powerful financial political organizations on Capitol Hill.

New political-action-committee reports show that the group came away from the 2008 elections with $1 million in cash; has raised $261,000 already this year; spent $222,000 (mostly giving to its national PAC and to local Realtor associations) and has given legislators and Gov. Gary Herbert — none of whom will be running in elections this year — more than $56,000.

In the 2008 elections, the PAC gave legislative candidates, political parties and other PACs nearly $200,000, an analysis by the Deseret News shows. Most 2008 donations to lawmakers came in $1,000 to $3,000 checks, reports show.

Not bad for a group of salespeople who make their money off of real estate commissions — commissions that have been hurting over the last 12 months.

Chris Kyler, chief executive officer of the association, told the Deseret News several years ago that he wanted to build the best and biggest PAC in Utah.

Clearly, he's done so.

Current association president Chris Sloan, who runs a small real estate firm in Tooele, said Tuesday that the group's main political goal "is the protection and promotion of private-property rights."

"No other organization's sole goal is protecting those rights, which can be taken away from us very easily" by government, Sloan added.

In Herbert (the group gave him $25,000 this summer), the UAR has clearly found a friend.

Herbert was a real estate agent for much of his professional life, giving it up when he won a full-time job as Utah County commissioner 16 years ago.

"Gary sat in my chair" as UAR president "some time ago," said Sloan.

Sloan said many Realtors are politically and civically active. "We're pretty lucky that way." Even in hard times, they continue to give to the association's PAC.

In fact, most of the money the UAR PAC raises is actually passed down to local associations, like the Salt Lake Association of Realtors. Those local chapters, in turn, make political donations to local candidates — thus extending the political reach of Realtors.

Sloan said Realtors make political donations even in off election years — like 2009 — because pushing their property-rights cause doesn't end with elections and because many officeholders need campaign cash throughout their terms, sometimes to pay off previous campaign debt.

e-mail: bbjr@desnews.com