State law requires candidates to file campaign finance reports with the Lieutenant Governor's Office five times: seven days before their party convention, seven days before the primary election, on Sept. 15 of the election year, seven days before the general election and Jan. 5 of the year after the election.
But in 2006, 95 legislative candidates, including 52 sitting legislators, couldn't get it right.
Those 95 candidates filed 1,303 amended reports, meaning they went in and changed the reports after they had turned them in by the deadlines.
Alterations to the campaign contribution reports occurred 725 times while 578 changes were made to the expenditure reports.
The total of the changes was $658,326.
Most amendments were the result of last-minute changes or mathematical errors, but suspicions have always lingered that some lawmakers change reports when the media and other observers aren't paying as much attention to lessen the scrutiny on certain contributors or amounts.
The worst offenders were Rep. Lynn Hemingway, D-Millcreek (108 amendments totaling $22,688), Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem (72 for $54,834), Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy (62 for $113,787), and unsuccessful Republican Senate candidate Jule Oliver (69 for $18,164).
Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, has introduced HB41, which would impose a fine of at least $25 for each amendment, or 5 percent of the amount of the amendment, whichever is greater.
We'll see how that flies.
Popularity contest: Barack Obama is the presidential candidate Americans would most like to travel with, while Mitt Romney is the one they would least like to travel with.
That was the result of an online survey of more than 2,000 respondents conducted last week by tripadvisor.com.
The Web site found that 18 percent would like to travel with Obama, while Hillary Clinton was second with 13 percent. Only 3 percent would want to travel with Romney.
It also found that Clinton was the candidate people would least like to sit next to on an airplane (26 percent) while Romney and Mike Huckabee garnered 15 percent each in that category.
Fifteen percent would most like to see Obama on a beach, followed by John Edwards (12 percent) and Romney (4 percent). Thirty percent would least like to see Clinton on a beach, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 18 percent.
Republicans are more likely to travel to the Caribbean (27 percent) than Democrats (22 percent), while Democrats are more likely to travel to Western Europe (31 percent) than are Republicans (23 percent).
prolly@
sltrib.com
