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SALT LAKE CITY — The Republican challenger in the race for Salt Lake County district attorney says he will return $18,000 in campaign donations from his parents after he misunderstood a county rule capping contributions.
State and county Democratic party leaders called for Republican Nathan Evershed to return the extra money on Wednesday, filing a complaint with the county after reviewing Evershed's campaign finance disclosure forms and saying the violation is troubling.
Evershed said it was an oversight.
"It was just an honest mistake, an honest misreading," he said Thursday, adding that checks for the excess contributions already had been sent back to the donors. "I take full responsibility."
He misinterpreted a county ordinance limiting a donor's contributions to $6,000 in between general elections, he said. His mother, Paula Evershed, his father, Roger Evershed, and his father's company, Rocky Mountain Engineering, each gave two sets of $6,000 donations in that timeframe, contributing double what the county allows.
Relying on erroneous advice, Evershed mistakenly believed the county allowed three sets of separate $6,000 donations during each of three different periods within the election cycle, he said. He's grateful the issue could be corrected before ballots are mailed, he added.
Evershed, a deputy district attorney for Salt Lake County, is challenging his boss, Democratic incumbent Sim Gill, for the job of top prosecutor in the county.
In their complaint to the county clerk, the Utah Democratic Party and Salt Lake Democratic Party wrote that "it is particularly troubling that these violations have occurred by a candidate who, if elected, would be charged with a critically important law enforcement function."
Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen in a Wednesday letter to Evershed directed him to return the extra money within 10 days.
"I think it was just a misunderstanding," Swensen said Thursday, noting candidates have sometimes misunderstood the ordinance in the past.
A prior version of the rule divided the one-year period into three cycles and capped donations to $2,000 per person during each of the periods. In 2008, the policy was changed, limiting the donations to $6,000 over the three terms, Swenson said.
