This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Sen. Chris Buttars has kept his seat on the Senate committee reviewing judicial nominees because of Senate President John Valentine's interest in keeping his leadership spot, a Utah Bar Association official said Monday.

Valentine said he had "taken a political hit'' for stripping Buttars of his chairmanship in February, after the senator wrote a letter chastising a judge for a ruling against a friend and political ally, Scott Sabey, representing the Bar Commission, told the Judicial Council.

The Senate president feared he could lose his leadership spot if he kicked Buttars off the committee, Sabey told the panel chaired by Supreme Court Justice Christine Durham and responsible for making policy for the judiciary.

Sabey told the council that Valentine feared that Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, could beat him in a leadership election later this year if Valentine suffered any more political damage.

The bar association preferred to keep Valentine as Senate president, and was willing to give Valentine a pass on his prior commitment, Sabey said in the public meeting attended by two Tribune editors.

Valentine, who is an attorney, was surprised at Sabey's version of events.

"My gosh," Valentine said. "There are parts of that that are accurate and parts of that that are like, 'Wow, I've never heard some of those things before.' "

Valentine removed Buttars as chairman in February, after a letter that Buttars had written months earlier to 4th District Judge Derek Pullan was made public.

But Valentine said Monday he left Buttars on the confirmation committee because he spoke with the committee's new chairman, Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, and Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, a committee member, and they agreed he should stay on.

"If I lose the presidency to anybody it's because I lose the votes and I've got more than enough votes now and I'm not worried about anything in this issue that is going to affect the run for president," Valentine said. "This is really strange."

Waddoups, who challenged Valentine in the past two leadership elections, said Monday he has not decided whether to seek the presidency again. He is focusing on his re-election campaign.

Sabey did not return a phone message following the meeting.

In the letter, written last May on Senate letterhead, Buttars scolded Pullan, questioning his character and integrity after Pullan ruled against Buttars' friend, Wendell Gibby, in a development dispute with the city of Mapleton.

Valentine had known about the letter for months before it became public in February. It had been brought to his attention by the Judicial Council and Valentine had actually suggested changes to the letter as Buttars was writing it.

But Valentine yanked the senator's chairmanship of the confirmation committee after it became public because he said that could call into question the judicial screening process.

Durham, who chairs the Judicial Council, wrote an opinion piece in Sunday's Tribune stressing the importance of judicial independence, but did not specifically reference the Buttars incident.

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* Tribune editors ELIZABETH NEFF and TONY SEMERAD contributed to this report.

* To see the letter from Buttars to Judge Pullan, http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site297/2008/0225/20080225_085419_4thdistcourt.pdf">click here.