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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- An independent candidate for lieutenant governor filed a complaint on Tuesday accusing Gov. Gary Herbert of violating campaign finance laws.
The complaint is the second one Steve Maxfield has filed against a Republican officeholder this year that focuses on the use of political action committees and personal campaign accounts.
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Herbert answers ‘below the belt' allegations involving contributions
Utah Governor Gary Herbert defended himself Monday against what he called "below the belt" allegations connecting his campaign contributions to the award of state contracts and tax incentives.At issue is a line in state law that says state office candidates and those who work on their behalf can only raise money and make expenditures for their elections through their campaign committees. However, state law also allows political action committees to raise and spend money for "political purposes," which is defined as the attempt to influence voters for or against candidates for public office.
Herbert uses a political action committee and a personal campaign account.
"If this was a criminal or an illicit enterprise, which I think politics in Utah is clearly becoming an illicit enterprise, they would call it money laundering. The pattern we have today is election laundering," Maxfield said.
Herbert campaign spokesman Don Olsen said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment.
In Utah, it's not uncommon for political candidates and officeholders to use political action committees rather than traditional officeholder or campaign accounts. PACs have much less frequent reporting requirements than traditional campaign accounts.
Transferring money from a PAC to a personal campaign account also makes it much more difficult for the public to track who is donating to a campaign.
Maxfield filed a nearly identical complaint against Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff in February. He has asked for special counsel to investigate his complaint.
Elections Director Mark Thomas said the lieutenant governor's office is still deciding what to do with the complaint against Shurtleff because it has been occupied with other things.
It's not the lieutenant governor's job to conduct an investigation, but to determine whether an investigation should take place by the attorney general's office, he said.
Maxfield has asked for the lieutenant governor's office to recuse itself in the case, although Thomas said he's not sure how that's possible.
"This one is different because he's filed the complaint against the governor and lieutenant governor, then he says don't look at," Thomas said. "Clearly, I believe it is a little funny that we get a complaint, yet the person says don't look at it. It seems to me if they were really concerned about it they would file directly with the AG's office or county attorney or city attorney."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
