Would campaign donation limits be effective?

There's a lot of talk these days about limiting political contributions to Utah gubernatorial, attorney general and legislative contests.

Legislative leaders are seriously considering one newly proposed campaign donation cap recommended by a special commission. But a Deseret News analysis of the limits proposed by the Governor's Commission on Strengthening Utah's Democracy shows just a small number of big donors' cash contributions would have been disallowed in 2008 races under the plan.

Some of the key findings include:

Fewer than 0.4 percent of donors in statewide and legislative elections would have exceeded new caps. But those few managed to donate a sixth of all money.

Such big donations went to just 26 of the 298 candidates, mostly well-financed incumbents, in state races who received money in 2008.

About $1 of every $6 raised last year would have been disallowed. To be exact, that was about $1.15 million of the $7.1 million donated to state and legislative races.

While the recommended contribution limits would have little effect on most legislative races, it would mean something in future gubernatorial fundraising.

For example, Gov. Gary Herbert could not have accepted $105,000 in big donations to his gala fundraiser two weeks ago, about one-tenth of the $1 million he raised that night. And $180,000 more would have had to be given over two years or more, rather than at a single event, the newspaper's analysis shows.

Herbert doesn't support any campaign donation limits, but he prefers "immediate" disclosure of donors and amounts given.

Utah House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, says the commission's campaign donation limits should become law. And other legislators have endorsed the caps, too.

Kirk Jowers, chair of the commission and head of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, says the final recommendation was a compromise between commission members and GOP leaders in the House and Senate. He believes the newspaper's analysis "is about right in what we thought — that (the plan) would have an impact on some large donations, which is what we wanted."

Jowers said the goal is not to limit overall money in political races.

"We actually want more money in races. We want more smaller donations from a candidate's constituents, not really big donations that may lead to actual corruption or the perception of corruption," he said.

Utah is one of only five states — Illinois, Missouri, Oregon, and Virginia being the others — without campaign donation limits. A candidate can accept any amount of money from anywhere, including donations from corporations that often have business before the Legislature and state government. Jowers said the limits would place Utah "about in the middle" of the states that have them.