Reform campaign-finance system

On Sept. 17, a bipartisan group of Utah legislators held a press conference to unveil a "Pledge for Legislative Ethics Reform." Key elements of the pledge are full reporting of all gifts by lobbyists to legislators, regardless of value or amount, and a prohibition against legislators spending campaign contributions for personal use.

As the Republican nominee for Utah House District 54, I support the measures these Utah legislators have proposed and I have signed the pledge. I fear, however, that the ethics pledge is a classic example of straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel.

The ethics pledge in my view fails to recognize the unavoidable relationship between donated gifts (such as meals or Utah Jazz tickets) and the checks that are constantly showered on our legislators' campaign bank accounts by corporations and lobby groups.

Any check that I receive from a lobbyist and deposit in my campaign account to pay for yard signs, newspaper ads or brochures means one less check that I have to write from our family's bank account, where we keep our money to buy groceries, gasoline and school clothes. The same is true for the value of any gifts that I receive. So the practical effect of both of these types of transfers is the same.

The value of gifts given to Utah lawmakers in an election year averages around $2,400 per legislator, but campaign contributions in the same time frame are approximately $15,000 per representative and more than $40,000 per senator. Although it is the gifts that are most loudly decried, the checks from lobbyists are by far the greater temptation.

I abhor even the appearance of impropriety created by a lobbyist writing a check to a legislator who may soon be voting on a bill that could mean a difference of millions of dollars to the lobbyist's employer. I therefore decided at the beginning of my campaign that I would not accept any money from lobbyists, special interest groups, or corporations that lobby the Legislature.

Instead, I asked for donations from friends, neighbors and co-workers — none of them lobbyists. So far, I have received over $14,000 from these generous individuals. Still, my wife and I had to spend an additional $9,000 out of our own tight budget on our tough primary win, and the looming general election will cost another $10,000 or more.

After I won the primary election, I started receiving unsolicited checks in the mail from corporations and interest groups. I have been returning all of these checks back to the senders uncashed, along with a letter explaining my position.

As more and more of these checks arrive in the mail, and as other lobbyists call asking to meet with me, my wife and I are seriously tempted to abandon our personal pledge and subscribe to the standard mantra that accepting checks from interest groups is fine as long as all contributions are fully disclosed for the voters to see. Although we have thankfully started to receive another round of generous contributions from friends and supporters, I do not know how long I can ask them to keep assisting my campaigns financially if I am elected.

Campaign contributions are a venerable tradition in American politics. I do not know if we will ever eradicate the public's perception that our laws are influenced more by special interest money than by the will of ordinary citizens. What I do know, after six months of my first foray into politics, is that if I maintain my current stance of refusing to accept money from special interest groups, and no significant changes are made to Utah's campaign-finance system, the $6,000 per year salary that I will receive if I am elected to the state Legislature will soon make me a poor man.

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Kraig Powell is the Republican candidate for state House District 54.

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