SALT LAKE CITY -- Are big special interest campaign donors winning special treatment from Gov. Gary Herbert? As the political season heats up, KSL News examined his donations and public schedule.

Those records reveal a pattern that Herbert's opponent plans to criticize in new ads.

The records clearly show big donors getting meetings with the governor. In some cases those meetings were followed by favorable decisions from the state. The governor and his team strongly insist there's no connection.

In February, several news outlets reported Herbert's campaign deposited a $10,000 check the same day the governor met with leaders of a coal mining company seeking a permit in southern Utah. State regulators apparently sped up the approval process shortly thereafter, but Herbert's office denied any link.

As a result of that story, KSL News compared the governor's public schedule with his campaign donations and found a similar pattern in other cases -- some which played out last fall as the governor was aggressively raising well over $1 million for his campaign war chest.

One case involves contractors on the I-15 CORE rebuild in Utah County -- the state's biggest ever road project. Three teams vied for the contract. One gave the governor's campaign no money, another gave $35,000.

The third team, Provo River Constructors, gave Herbert's campaign much more. Wadsworth Brothers Construction and partners Ames, Ralph Wadsworth and Fluor have contributed more than $80,000.

Around the time most of those donations came in Guy Wadsworth got two meetings with the governor, apparently something no other bidding team had.

The governor says the I-15 project was not discussed.

"They've never talked to me about any road projects specifically," Herbert told KSL. "I have nothing to do with how people get bids. We have independent boards; it's a competitive environment.

A month later, the state awarded the $1.725 billion contract to Provo River. The governor says he had nothing to do with the Utah Department of Transportation's decision. He was present at the construction kickoff in March but told KSL he didn't know the team won the contract until we told him.

"I don't know who's won the bids on virtually … we have 210 projects. Whether Wadsworth got it, nobody calls me and says 'Guess what?' it's just not even on my radar screen," Herbert said.

UDOT director John Njord says the Provo River team won the bid because they agreed to do more work -- in terms of miles, quality, width, lanes and bridges -- in less time than the others.

"I was never told by the governor who to select or by any member of his staff. It was entirely my decision," Njord wrote in a statement to KSL.

Another case involves a man who recently appeared in a Herbert ad: Fred Lampropoulos, CEO of Merit Medical. His company gave the governor's campaign $50,000.

"We wanted to make sure he got off on the right foot," Lampropoulos said. "You know, it costs money to run these things."

Last fall, before that money was given, Lampropoulos, himself a candidate for governor in 2004, endorsed Herbert. Around that time the two met twice. Herbert says they discussed policy; Lampropoulos says it was economic development and moving his company.

"[We discussed] Merit and what our goal was in moving our business from Texas to Salt Lake City, which we've done," Lampropoulos said.

A few weeks after the meetings, the Governor's Office of Economic Development awarded Merit a $4.6 million tax credit for a new expansion, which Merit says will cost $40 million and add 500 employees.

Both Herbert and Lampropoulos say there's no link between the meetings; the money and the tax credit, which the governor says was decided by the board.

"Anybody, I guess, can try to make any kind of accusation, and two plus two equals five, but I meet with business people throughout the state," Herbert said.

"We do, you know, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions to numerous political campaigns on both sides of the aisle," Lampropoulos said.

Meanwhile, Herbert's campaign opponent sees a "pattern" of contributions, access and official decisions.

"That just smells funny," said Peter Corroon, Democratic candidate for governor. "I think citizens should be concerned that big money has taken over politics, and that's what we need to change. That's why we need campaign finance limits. That's why we need to limit contractors with the state from giving large contributions to elected officials; pure and simple."

The governor's team says they're essentially being criticized for raising money from big sources -- something Corroon is doing too, with $50,000 from developer Kem Gardner and $10,000 apiece from at least nine labor unions.

"If he's getting big support from big labor, then that ought to be something the electorate ought to factor in as they weigh and consider our candidacies," Herbert said. "If I'm getting big support from the business community, that's something they ought to figure in to."

Several calls and e-mails to road builder Guy Wadsworth were not returned.

The Corroon campaign says it plans to run the new spots raising questions about this issue next week.

E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com