The Republican candidate for House District 37 representing parts of Holladay, Murray and Midvale has collected at least $14,000 from a "school choice" group and its supporters, one-fourth of the money she has raised. But Thackeray prefers to avoid the elephant in the room: Parents for Choice in Education exists to promote school voucher legislation. Instead, Thackeray hedges when asked if she will vote for taxpayer-financed vouchers.

At first, Thackeray said, "I would not vote for vouchers." Then, she qualified that with, "I would not vote for anything I haven't seen. I'm not pro-voucher, and I'm not anti-voucher."

"I'm not beholden to anybody," Thackeray added.

Thackeray is not unique. About a dozen Republican candidates are being propped up with money from Parents for Choice and its network of supporters. Some candidates openly endorse vouchers. But several of them avoid talking about school choice. Vouchers are unpopular with voters, polls show.

Nevertheless, the GOP and Parents for Choice apparently are aligned this year, sending hundreds of mailings out in targeted Wasatch Front races. The cards skewer Democrats for eroding tax limits and weakening sex offender laws. One mentions the Carson Smith Scholarship fund - seen as the first step toward a full-fledged voucher program. But for the most part, voucher language is absent.

"It concerns me that maybe there is a concerted effort to put people into the Legislature who will support vouchers without letting people know that's what is going on," said Claire Geddes, a legislative watchdog who asked the Republican candidate in her district, Robyn Bagley, her view on vouchers and was frustrated by Bagley's evasions.

Parents for Choice has no such hesitation. "We want to educate people about school choice," Elisa Peterson, the group's director, said a few months ago. "An integral part of that is elections - getting people who support school choice elected."

But Parents for Choice spokeswoman Nancy Pomeroy says there is no quid pro quo for candidates who take the PAC's money. "They need to vote however they want to vote," Pomeroy said. "They need to vote the way that best represents their constituents."

Parents for Choice will only disclose a small number of the candidates they support, and a web of donors makes its financial influence difficult to track. But those receiving the most attention lately are: Thackeray in Holladay, Bagley in Cottonwood Heights, Deena Ely in Magna, George Garwood in Ogden and Jess Clifford in Tooele. Garwood and Clifford openly support vouchers, while the other three are more vague.

Here is a thumbnail sketch of how pro-voucher groups filter money to candidates:

Parents for Choice's biggest donors are a Virginia-based group called All Children Matter; Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com; and Rick Koerber, a private-school investor who oversees a number of companies under the Utah County umbrella group FranklinSquires. Byrne and the Koerber group also finance Utah's Working Moms and Dads, a political action committee that backs school-choice candidates.

All of these entities, including board members and Koerber group owners, send hefty donations to the Utah Republican Party and individual candidates. A conservative estimate of their spending this election year is $500,000 - far more than contributed by the fiercest opponents of vouchers, the teachers' unions. The actual sum is probably larger since these groups likely funnel money through other channels.

State Democratic Party leaders first alleged a connection between Parents for Choice, its supporters and the Republican Party based on mailings that have blanketed areas where Parents for Choice candidates are running against Democrats backed by the Utah Education Association.

Magna Democratic Rep. Carl Duckworth says Ely's mailings mischaracterize his votes on tax laws and Utah's marriage amendment - he voted for a state law defining marriage as the legal union of a man and a woman but rejected a constitutional amendment.

"When you have a long voting record, it's pretty easy to pick through there and find stuff that for one reason or another you didn't vote for and say you're not representing the public," Duckworth said. "In reality, I did represent my constituents in the way they wanted to be represented."

Ely defends the mailings as truthful: "If he's ashamed of his voting record, that's his problem."

But she dodges questions about her support for vouchers, describing her stand as "pro-education" and saying Parents for Choice is just one source of her campaign funding. About one-third of the $48,000 she has raised comes from school choice groups.

"They are not talking about the issue they care about," said Utah Democratic Party Director Todd Taylor. "They know their issue is unpopular."

Republican Party Chairman Joe Cannon points out that public school reform has been a part of the GOP platform for years. The party will direct financial support to whatever candidates its donors select. But, Cannon says, the Republican Party would be backing the conservative Salt Lake County candidates anyway. "We accept money to help Republican candidates, period," Cannon said. "We have a strategy to support Republicans in contested races, and most of those contested races are in Salt Lake County."

There is nothing illegal about what Parents for Choice and the Republicans are doing. But Geddes says she worries they are trying to dupe voters. None of Bagley's brochures mention the candidate is a school-choice supporter.

"I found this out by asking her," Geddes said. "I think she should be far more open to the public about where she stands on these issues." Bagley did not return repeated calls for this story. Her Web site does not mention private school vouchers or tuition tax credits, even though she has received about $9,000 from school choice supporters.

Some Republican candidates are dismayed by the apparent nexus between their political party and the voucher advocates.

Davis County Republican Rep. Sheryl Allen, who was targeted by Parents for Choice in her June primary, believes voters should beware.

"I know [Parents for Choice] filter their money. I also know the candidates don't run on who's funding them," Allen said. "If my party is a filtering system for a lot of money from these organizations, that is a concern."

Democratic incumbent Carol Moss, who is being challenged by Thackeray, says voters should be skeptical. "Parents for Choice has one motive: to elect candidates who will vote for tuition tax credits," Moss said. "You can't take their money and then, when they come to collect, say 'no.' "

walsh@sltrib.com;

mcanham@sltrib.com