The Draper Republican said he wanted his constituents to know that the charges were an eleventh-hour political attack and "the dirtiest kind of campaigning."

"I want to spend some time with my family," he said, "and get back to my district and start campaigning."

While the bipartisan committee cleared Hughes, all eight members signed a letter faulting his conduct as "unbecoming a member of the Utah House."

"We request that Representative Hughes take steps to change his behavior," the panel wrote, "and to make appropriate apologies to those who may have been affected."

David Irvine, an attorney and former legislator who helped write the complaint, said the outcome is not surprising - given the Legislature's rules.

"The standard of proof . . . is so high," he said, "that unless you have a videotape of someone handing over a bag of cash, it's almost impossible."

But he said the letter chastising Hughes' behavior "absolutely vindicates the people who filed this complaint."

The complaint came Oct. 1 from three Democrats: Reps. Roz McGee of Salt Lake City, Neil Hansen of Ogden and Phil Riesen of Holladay.

McGee said the charges against Hughes were "not a political attack," and the letter chastising Hughes' behavior is "a small step, but it's an important step."

Hughes stood accused of attempting to bribe a former lawmaker to support school vouchers, of strong-arming lobbyists into backing the voucher movement, of threatening would-be political foes and of pressuring lobbyists not to support a GOP voucher opponent.

After seven days of closed-door testimony, the committee determined that the six charges could not be proven by "clear and convincing evidence."

It would have taken a majority of the panel, made up of four Republicans and four Democrats, to find that Hughes committed wrongdoing. The panel then could have recommended punishment ranging from censure to expulsion.

The six charges were broken down into 30 alleged violations. Votes on three of them came down to a 4-to-4 party-line vote. Votes on 23 of the 30 were unanimous. Republicans voted lockstep to dismiss every charge.

"It is amazing to me the unanimity of the votes by the Republicans," McGee said.

The question remains whether the public airing of the ethics charges has damaged Hughes' re-election chances beyond repair. His backers say the 17 days he has been under a cloud of suspicion has taken a political toll.

His opponent, Democrat Lisa Johnson, has made ethics reform a central theme in her campaign the past several weeks, although she said she had no knowledge the Hughes complaint was coming. At a recent debate, she called fixing the Legislature's ethics rules the most important issue the body will face.

The ethics proceedings highlighted the extent to which the ghosts of last year's bitter voucher fight still haunt the Legislature. All six charges dealt either directly with Hughes' efforts to rally support for vouchers or his attempts to help defend candidates, including himself, who had backed the proposal.

The process appears to have given the Legislature a desire to tackle ethics reform in its next session. House and Senate leaders said this week that they anticipate changes will come to how the bodies handle future complaints. Both candidates for governor also say reform is needed.

House Ethics Committee Co-Chairman Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, conceded the rules and standard of conduct the committee had to follow "left all of us frustrated and wanting."

"The legislative rule of official conduct needs to be rewritten in a way that is more clear and definitive," he said.

Lawmakers plan to discuss new rules for disclosing lobbyist gifts and conflicts of interest and limiting personal use of campaign contributions.

The committee took its final testimony Friday, hearing from veteran lobbyist Rob Jolley, who said there was no merit to an allegation that he had been bullied by Hughes not to support a Republican challenger to a pro-voucher legislator.

Jolley said after the closed-door testimony that he thinks the complaint was "just a continuation of the voucher fight. Those who won are trying to exact revenge on those who lost."

He added: "This type of politics has got to stop."

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* SHEENA McFARLAND contributed to this story

What's next:

A Saturday story about the ruling on ethics allegations against Rep. Greg Hughes reported the wrong day for the House Ethics Committee to begin hearing testimony in an ethics complaint against Rep. Phil Riesen. The committee will begin meeting on Wednesday.

* Riesen is accused of leaking defamatory allegations about Rep. Greg Hughes to KSL TV before joining a complaint against the Draper Republican.

Rep. Greg Hughes embraces his wife, Krista Hughes, after the House Ethics Committee exonerated him Friday of all six allegations of misconduct. Hughes insisted from the outset that he had done nothing wrong.