The e-mail said the chamber and the Utah Bankers Association were co-sponsoring an open house, and while there was no cost, any donations to Chaffetz' campaign were welcome.
Chaffetz, who defeated Congressman Chris Cannon in the June primary, faces Democrat Bennion Spencer in the 3rd Congressional District general election.
Natalie Gochnour, chief operating officer of the chamber, said the association had nothing to do with the fundraiser, but that Lane Beattie, the chamber's chief executive officer, was sponsoring it on his own.
"The Salt Lake Chamber is not hosting this, we have not sent invitations out, not spent any money, not endorsed this," she said. "There is clearly some communication out there that acts like this is under our banner, but this is not our event."
Beattie cosponsored the event with Howard Headlee, president of the Utah Bankers Association, and both of their names and titles appeared on the formal invitations mailed out to people.
"We tried to be clear in our invitation," Headlee said. "But there was some miscommunication."
But Wayne Holland, chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, says it's "very difficult to try to hoodwink people into thinking" there's a separation between Beattie and the Chamber.
"It kind of ties the chamber to some extremist ideas that Jason has been talking about," Holland said, referring to Chaffetz' statement that undocumented immigrants should be rounded up into tent cities. "That's very difficult for the chamber and the many minority members who belong to the chamber."
An e-mail from the program "Bank the Vote" stated the fundraiser was sponsored by the two associations. However, Zions Bank's Website describes Bank the Vote as "a non-partisan program that encourages employees to be active in the political process."
Headlee says his association supports both parties, as evidenced by the fact he just flew back from the Democratic National Convention to host the Chaffetz fundraiser.
Gochnour says while the Chamber has held political debates for various legislative races, it has a policy not to endorse any political candidate.
The liberal blog, Daily Kos, though, posted the e-mail and questioned the legality of the Chamber, a 501(c)(6), to host such a fund raiser. However, according to the Internal Revenue Service, such organizations can engage in some political activity as long as it is not their primary activity. However, those contributions may be taxable.
Chaffetz and his campaign said they did not know why the confusion arose, or where the e-mails about the Wednesday event originated.
