Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
A group urging lawmakers to consider major ethics reforms on Capitol Hill is accusing House leaders of bullying tactics and a push to silence critics. The rancor comes in the context of a political system more flush with campaign cash than ever.
Longtime political observers say if you combine one-party rule with combustible personalities and some of the weakest ethics rules in the nation, you have a recipe for trouble.
Signs of deep acrimony: A garage shout-down between the House speaker's chief of staff and the lawmaker at the center of an ethics conflict, a chilly meeting between Democrats and Republicans in the speaker's office where the sides disagree about whether things got nasty and personal, and a claim that a former GOP lawmaker was pressured to retract her signed, written statement alleging she was offered $50,000 in campaign contributions in exchange for a "yes" vote on school vouchers.
Last week, KSL Newsradio's Doug Wright asked former Rep. Susan Lawrence, "Did you receive any phone calls in that bevy of calls yesterday, or maybe even today, where somebody went, ‘Hey Susan, what are you doing?'"
Lawrence replied, "They didn't say that specifically. Yes. But those were not calls from my former constituents."
When Doug asked who they were from, Lawrence replied, "I don't think that'd be appropriate for me to say."
House Majority Leader David Clark says he did talk to the former legislator after the story went public but says, "There has never been an effort to get her to change her story. It was written down. Absolutely not."
A former four-term Republican lawmaker who served in the ‘70s, who represents Democrat Phil Riesen in the ethics fight says trouble has been brewing for years. "The most significant change over this period of time is the amount of money that is now sluicing through the political process," attorney David Irvine said.
Political observers say the potential for distrust is great if you combine that with what is basically one-party rule and what are regarded as among the nation's weakest, most lax ethics laws.
"That can add to this appearance of corruption or problems. Whether it's there or not, the appearance is there," said Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics.
Meanwhile, some are questioning if dueling ethics hearings on Capitol Hill be open to the public? The two men at the center at the evolving fight say yes, but long-standing legislative rules prevent it.
Today, the attorney for Rep. Greg Hughes repeated a call his client has made to allow these hearings to be open, something Democrat Phil Riesen has been calling for as well. But the reality is that it's the Legislature's own rules that keep those hearings closed.
Hughes' attorney, Tom Karrenberg, demanded an open hearing when the House Ethics Committee meets Wednesday. But the co-chair of that committee says the GOP-led Legislature would have to change its rules to open those hearings to the public.
"It is absolutely my client that's trying to obtain an open discussion of these issues. It was Representative Riesen who released this ethics complaint to the press prior it to being signed and prior to it being filed with the appropriate ethics committee personnel," Karrenberg said.
"We have been very interested in having this an open proceeding. In fact, our opinion is that the open meetings law requires that it be an open process. The legislative counsel takes a different view of that," Irvine said.
House ethics committee co-chair Todd Kiser said, "Our House rules, right now, indicate that they'll be closed. So we would have to, by the 104-member body Legislature, change those. So right now, as per the rules that guide us, our committee can't make a decision to change that."
Karrenberg also says he has proof that the allegations against his client are a political-motivated "October Surprise."
"If you look on the Web site for the contributions for Lisa M. Johnson, who is running against Representative Hughes, the single larges contributer is Alan Smith, council for Representative Reisen," Karrenberg said.
Smith is also an attorney Riesen. Hughes has filed an ethics complaint against Riesen for leaking documents to the media.
"My donations are not my client's donations. This is an effort to distract from the charges against Representative Hughes. I'm going to trust people understand the basic difference between a campaign contribution and an alleged bribe," Smith said.
Hearings on this contentious issue begin Wednesday morning. The committee co-chair says me they could last a week.
Also looming over recent events is an investigation into alleged bribery involving the race for Utah Treasurer. Davis and Weber county prosecutors say they've concluded their investigation, are reviewing evidence and will announce a decision a week from tomorrow.
E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com
