This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In the primary election for governor, Utah Republicans have a choice between an incumbent who has been blatantly selling access in exchange for checks and a challenger whose campaign has been funded mostly with cash from himself and a controversial business partner.
It's Available Jones vs. Richie Rich.
Neither of them is bothering to portray himself as responsive to people who aren't lobbyists, donors or wealthy pals. They just don't want to get left behind in the moneyball game.
Gov. Gary Herbert is trying to explain away the "bad optics" of reports, later confirmed by a recording provided to The Salt Lake Tribune, that he basically offered a roomful of the state's top lobbyists 20 minutes of private, one-on-one face-time in return for a large donation delivered on the spot.
Herbert was so eager to set up such meetings that he gave himself the "Available Jones" nickname, derived from a Li'l Abner comic strip character who was willing to do anything for the right price.
It would have been better for Herbert to have read Pogo, whose possum protagonist famously stated, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
The governor's defense is that running a statewide primary race is expensive and that, as a man of comparatively modest means, he needs a lot of help to keep up with the personal wealth of his rival, Jonathan Johnson.
Despite complaints filed by Johnson allies, there seems to be nothing illegal about Herbert's methods. In Utah, just about any contribution from any source is legal as long as it is publicly registered in the proper time and manner.
Herbert wasn't selling, as far as anyone can tell, jobs, contracts, signatures or vetoes. Just access, which is what all large donors expect for the largesse they ladle on candidates.
Unless you are a candidate like Johnson, who is getting much of his money from fellow Overstock.com executive Patrick Byrne. Byrne is known as an aggressive libertarian, a big-time backer of taxpayer-funded school vouchers and, presumably, already has all the access he could want to a Johnson administration.
Meanwhile, the only Democrat still in the race for governor, Michael Weinholtz, has pledged to refuse corporate and lobbyist money and to meet with any voter, not just those bearing donations.
As another millionaire able to float his own campaign, Weinholtz (Daddy Warbucks?) might not be the best avatar of campaign funding reform. As a Democrat in a Republican state, his proposals might not really matter much.
But unless the voters find some way to stand up and object in the only way politicians can hear them — at the ballot box — there's no chance any of this will change.