Washington » Senate candidate Mike Lee made more than $600,000 last year from his law firm representing clients ranging from an oil shale developer to a prescription drug manufacturer to Utah's radioactive waste facility, EnergySolutions.
Lee's campaign on Wednesday made public a report on his assets and debts that he was supposed to have filed with the Senate by April 8. Campaign Manager Ryan McCoy said he was sending the disclosure via UPS to the secretary of the Senate as well.
The report does not detail how much Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions paid Lee as an attorney for the company in a legal dispute over whether Utah, through a regional compact, has the ability to block the importation of low-level radioactive waste to EnergySolutions' Tooele County landfill.
Lee owned stock in the company but sold all of it a day prior to filing for office earlier this year, McCoy said. Because Lee is paid as a partner in the Howrey LLP law firm, there's no way to tell how much money he made from EnergySolutions as part of his salary, McCoy added.
"He doesn't get a commission" from the company, McCoy said.
Lee did report that he made between $2,500 and $5,000 off of his EnergySolutions stock in dividends before he sold it.
Lee also made $2,101 from Brigham Young University last year as an adjunct professor, as well as $6,600 as a director of Mazuma Capital, a Utah investment firm. His clients included drugmaker Schering-Plough, Allied Waste and Red Leaf Resources, which is seeking to turn oil-shale rock into an energy source.
The former government attorney -- he was legal counsel to then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. -- apparently hasn't had time in the private sector to accumulate much wealth. He lists only one asset, with value of $1,000 or less and debts of between $38,000 and $115,000, including student loans and a credit card balance. Candidates are not required to include their homes in the report of assets.
Lee is the leading candidate among Republican delegates to win the nomination for U.S. Senate against incumbent Bob Bennett, who is running third among the conservative crowd, according to the latest Tribune poll. GOP challenger Merrill Cook also failed to file a personal financial disclosure but sent it after a reporter's call.
Thursday, Lee's opponents took the opportunity to take a swipe at the constitutional lawyer for missing a filing deadline set by federal law.
"My only thought is all of the nonlawyers were able to comply with the regulation, why was it the lawyer who somehow couldn't get it together in time?" Bennett asked.
Tiffany Gunnerson, a spokeswoman for Tim Bridgewater, said hiding financial records by breaking the law -- Lee faces a $200 fine for belatedly sending in his personal asset disclosure -- should lead people to question why.
Bridgewater filed his personal finance report with the Senate more than a month in advance of the deadline.
"It is unfortunate that Mike Lee didn't file immediately after he was told he violated FEC disclosure laws," Gunnerson said. "By filing this late in the process, delegates only have a few days to access this information before convention."
Lee's campaign said it misunderstood the federal guidelines requiring a report a month before the Utah GOP's May 8 convention, believing it had until May 15.
Meanwhile Thursday, the Federal Elections Commission sent notices to seven of the Senate candidates -- Bennett, Lee, Cherilyn Eagar, Cook, Bridgewater and Democratic contenders Chris Stout and Sam Granato -- notifying them that the Senate Public Records Office had still not received their preconvention campaign reports. Those reports are separate from personal finance disclosures and only deal with what campaigns are spending and taking in from contributions.
But Bennett, Lee, Eagar and Bridgewater's reports showed up later Thursday in the Senate office and had been mailed on time.
