SALT LAKE CITY — Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson's Office confirmed to FOX 13 News it has closed an election complaint filed against Utah State Senate President J. Stuart Adams, taking no action against him.
But the Lt. Governor's Office on Thursday also issued new guidance to all candidates and political officeholders, urging them to be more clear in declaring campaign expenditures in the future.
The Alliance for a Better Utah, a progressive policy watchdog organization, filed a complaint against President Adams, R-Layton, accusing him of not properly disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenditures for his campaigns and political action committees going back 14 years. Instead, the money was listed under entities like "Bank of America" or "American Express" with no disclosure of where the money actually went. The Senate President denied wrongdoing and said he was acting under guidance he'd been given in the past from the Lt. Governor's Office.
The complaint against the Senate President apparently prompted other campaigns to inquire if they had done something wrong. In a letter to candidates and officeholders dated Dec. 31, state elections officials appeared to acknowledge that guidance issued to candidates in the past indicated that less descriptive disclosures was sufficient. State law, however, says otherwise.
"Based on this definition, listing yourself as the payee when reimbursing yourself for expenditures, a credit card company (e.g. American Express), a money transfer service (e.g. Venmo), or other intermediaries is insufficient; the final payee of the good or service must be listed. Recognizing that different guidance was issued in the past, this requirement will not apply retroactively, but will be enforced moving forward," Madi Topik, the state's financial disclosure specialist, wrote in the letter.
In a statement to FOX 13 News on Thursday, President Adams said he has complied and will comply with directives from the Lt. Governor.
"I complied with the statute, which includes dropdown menus with expense categories and the guidelines provided by the Lt. Governor's Office. The false and baseless claim against me is entirely without merit," he said. "I have always been, and remain, fully committed to complying with campaign disclosure requirements. Just as I have followed the guidelines provided by the Lt. Governor's Office in the past, I will continue to comply with the recently updated guidelines."
Alliance for a Better Utah told FOX 13 News in a statement that while it's grateful the Lt. Governor has corrected guidance for candidates to clearly comply with the law, "we find it concerning that this investigation ends without accountability."
"If the LG’s office, whose primary role is enforcing our limited election laws, would choose to both admit that candidates and office holders, such as President Adams, have intentionally violated the law and choose to not hold them responsible for those intentional violations, what incentive is there for legislators to follow the law?" the group said.
"These are the legislature’s own rules—they created them. If neither the executive nor legislative branches have any interest in either enforcing those rules or changing them, organizations such as Better Utah may have no choice but to go to the courts to find out where the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been spent by legislative leadership have actually gone."
