Realtors are the star on Legislature's money tree
5 percent of all donations to incoming lawmakers from UAR
Move over, Utah Public Employees Association.
The star on the Legislature's money tree is the Utah Association of Realtors — raising $668,355 over the past two years and spending $292,000 on political activities.
In the 2004 elections, the association, with 10,000 dues-paying Realtors around the state, gave $129,750 to lawmakers who will sit in the 2005 Legislature, a study by the Deseret Morning News of legislators' financial filings shows.
That's 5 percent of all the money given to incoming lawmakers.
The association donated to 63 of the 104 legislators in the lawmakers' most recent races, the newspaper found, mostly in $1,000 to $3,000 individual checks.
Association CEO Chris Kyler said that when he came on board in 1999 one of his goals was to build an "election machine" for the group — one that tracks bills, analyzes votes, raises money, assesses candidates and then supports "good, solid legislators" who vote to support home ownership; wise, multifaceted land use; good citizenship; and other association goals.
The PAC's fund raising went from $106,000 in 2000 to nearly $400,000 by the end of 2004, Kyler said. "I'm not surprised," he said, that the UAR is the largest donor to winning state legislative races, although that in itself was not a goal.
But it's not just money. An active volunteer program pays more dividends than cash, believes Kyler, who holds political science and law degrees from Brigham Young University. The UAR hires no contract lobbyists but uses local Realtors who lobby lawmakers under Kyle's direction.
Identifying maybe 15 bills of interest each general session, Kyler said UAR members in recent years have not seen one bill they opposed become law. "We fly under the radar screen. We're not obnoxious. But we make sure our voice is heard to protect the voice of real estate and home ownership."
Realtors invested most heavily in a 2004 legislative candidate who lost, however. Fellow Realtor Gage Froerer, a GOP candidate in Senate District 19 in Weber County, lost a Republican primary to Allen Christensen, who went on to win the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. David Gladwell, R-Ogden.
The association poured $25,000 into Froerer's campaign — 62.3 percent of all the money Froerer raised, pre-election financial reports show.
But even though the association was No. 1 in giving to winning legislators, its generosity doesn't stop there.
It gave $30,000 to Lt. Gov.-elect Gary Herbert before Herbert got out of the governor's race and joined Jon Huntsman Jr.'s campaign as second-in-command. The donation was one of Herbert's largest.
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