Attorney Alan Smith said he twice approached Johnson about the Hughes ethics complaint while he was in the process of investigating the alleged misconduct - the first time to ask if she wanted to be part of it, the second to ask about some information he thought she might have.

That appears to contradict Johnson's insistence that the ethics complaint was a surprise to her. "I did not have discussions with anyone involved and I will not," she said during a debate earlier this month.

But Smith said that, when he approached Johnson the first time in April she made it clear she did not want any part of the ethics inquiry.

"She said, 'No way. I'm not going to do that,' " Smith said. "I said, 'You absolutely should do this, and it's an important issue. You ought to make it an issue.' . . . She was so unequivocal in her refusal that it was one of those where you just don't go back and revisit it with her."

Nonetheless, in July, as work on the Hughes complaint was progressing, Smith said he left a message for Johnson trying to get a piece of information and got a call back from her husband who said "she's not going to talk to you about this stuff."

Hughes, R-Draper, says the inconsistencies raise even more questions about her involvement.

"That is not what she stated publicly in the past," he said. "He's basically sold her out."

Hughes has accused Johnson of having a hand in the complaint. He says the ties between Johnson and Smith make it unrealistic to think she was not involved.

Johnson is executive director of the anti-voucher group Utahns For Public Schools and Smith is a board member, he is her largest donor, he did legal work for her husband and Johnson has made ethics a central issue in her campaign.

The House Ethics Committee dismissed the six charges of ethical misconduct against Hughes but wrote a letter scolding him for conduct "unbecoming a member of the Utah House."

Johnson has maintained that she had no involvement or advance knowledge that the complaint against Hughes was going to be filed. She said she learned about it from news reports and would have preferred it not come out just before the Nov. 4 election.