While a story in the Provo Daily Herald on Tuesday quoted some of Bramble's colleagues as saying he was cleared of any wrongdoing, other members of the Senate's Republican caucus are not yet satisfied.

One GOP senator said privately that questions need to be asked in the caucus and if there is even an appearance of impropriety, "then the Senate needs to do something."

Bramble's name came up as the State Auditor's Office conducted an audit of the Utah College of Applied Technology and how it was appropriating public funds. UCAT President Rob Brems and Mountainland Applied Technology President Clay Christensen were placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation.

Allegations surfaced that Bramble inappropriately contacted Christensen about help in building the float the political party used during July parades in Utah County.

The Daily Herald story quoted Senate Ethics Committee co-chairman Mike Dmitrich and Senate President John Valentine as saying that their investigation cleared Bramble of any wrongdoing, suggesting he will not be implicated in State Auditor Auston Johnson's report, expected to be publicly released today.

But some senators were troubled by the sentence in the Daily Herald story that Bramble, Valentine, Johnson and Rep. Rebecca Lockhart, Bramble's close political ally, made a conference call to Christensen to get to the heart of the story. They wonder if Johnson, the investigator, should not have interviewed Christensen outside the presence of the subject of the probe and his legislative allies.

Bramble was quoted as saying he had just made casual comments to Christensen about the float. Lockhart, too, was quoted in the story as saying she discussed the float construction, but said she made it clear the party would pay all the costs. It turned out an anonymous donor paid the costs of the float.

The unsatisfied senators point to a law in the Utah Code that makes it illegal to ask for any benefit from a public servant.

Just asking a public servant like Christensen about helping on the float creates an appearance of wrongdoing, they say.

Meanwhile, some members of the House Republican Caucus are now interested in Lockhart's revelation that she, too, had a conversation with MCAT officials about the float and might look into an ethics investigation in their own body.

prolly@sltrib.com