Democrats allege that Greiner and Brummett may be violating a federal law - known as the Hatch Act - which prohibits state and local employees who receive federal pay or oversee federally funded grants or programs from seeking partisan elected office.

Greiner, who is Ogden's police chief, is taking on Democrat Stuart Reid, a former Ogden employee, for District 18's state Senate seat.

Brummett, a Murray resident who heads up Ogden's Information Technology department, is trying to unseat Democratic incumbent Mark Wheatley in House District 35.

Brummett, who recently learned he is being investigated by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel for possible violations of the 1939 Hatch Act, maintains his candidacy complies with federal law.

"I'm the computer guy," Brummett said Monday. "I don't administer federal grants, none of my salary comes from federal grants. I'm so completely in the clear, it's funny."

Greiner argues his candidacy is legal as well.

"Our initial look at this," Greiner said, "before I even decided to file, was that federal program money did not come to me in the form of wages and, therefore, didn't apply to me,"

At the request of the Utah Democratic Party, the Office of Special Counsel has contacted Greiner, asking for his job description and information about federal grants received by Ogden's Police Department.

"If that city police agency is holding grants from the federal government - and virtually all of them do - [Greiner] could be covered by the Hatch Act," said Matthew Burbank, an associate professor of political science at the University of Utah. "It's a fairly murky area."

Initially, eight Republican candidates seemed suspect, said Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party.

"The two we followed through with were Greiner and Brummett," Taylor said. "As we looked at the Ogden City budget, they brag about the federal grants brought into the police department and some of that is used for technology. We believed there were federal funds coming into the IT department."

In March, the Democrats relinquished a candidate whose boss told him he couldn't run because he used federally funded equipment.

Whether Greiner or Brummett will be forced to step aside remains to be seen.

"My guess is the act won't apply in these two cases," predicted political pollster Dan Jones. "I don't think the office in Washington, D.C., would take the time to fight them. They haven't been as strict in enforcing the act as they used to be."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com