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The Salt Lake County Republican Party hasn't disclosed information about campaign contributions or expenses for nearly 20 months — a gap that has Democrats crying foul and Republicans pledging to fix the problem.
The Lieutenant Governor's Office confirmed Thursday the county GOP hasn't filed a campaign finance report since January 2009, when it closed its books on the previous year.
It's a hole in campaign reporting that state officials link to a change in party leadership — when former chairman James Evans was replaced by grass-roots organizer Thomas Wright.
"Some of those things fall by the wayside," said Elizabeth Hilverda, special assistant to the lieutenant governor, who said the mistake appears to be an inadvertent product of the transition.
GOP Chairman Thomas Wright has promised to produce those papers today, saying the party was never notified of the need to file.
"I want to be open and transparent," he said.
Wright said the party has the documentation for those financial transactions. He planned to double-check the numbers Thursday night and deliver them this morning.
But there appears to be some question about whether county political parties are required to file financial disclosures at all. Mark Thomas, director of elections for the Lieutenant Governor's Office, said the law is so ambiguous that county parties could make a compelling case about why disclosure deadlines don't apply to them.
"It is not explicit in the code that they need to file," he said.
Thomas plans to raise the issue before a legislative committee this month, looking for clarification.
However, Salt Lake County Democratic Party Chairman Weston Clark criticized the GOP's inaction as a disregard for public accountability.
"It creates a lot of questions," he said, "about where the money is coming from."
Although the chairman doubts the Republican Party tried to conceal its contributors deliberately, he said the absence of a campaign finance report "seems very neglectful on their part."
Democrats filed their report Tuesday (the day of the Aug. 31 deadline). The report indicates the Democratic Party received $84,062 and spent $85,698 this year.
The Lieutenant Governor's Office asks political parties to file up to three campaign finance reports a year — a year-end report on Jan. 10 and two additional reports, on Aug. 31 and seven days before the general election on even-numbered years.
"The reason we have these reporting deadlines is so people can make decisions based on a full knowledge of where the money is coming from and where it is going in a campaign," Clark said. "We try to follow the laws and regulations and it doesn't look like [Republicans] are choosing to follow those same laws and regulations."
It was an oversight, Republicans insist, nothing more.
"If you don't know you were supposed to be doing something — and were never told that you weren't doing it — then it is a little difficult to do it," Utah Republican Party Chairman Dave Hansen said. "It smacks a little bit of politics to me."
What the law says
20A-11-101 (42) • 'Registered political party' means an organization of voters that participated in the last regular general election and polled a total vote equal to 2% or more of the total votes cast for all candidates for the United States House of Representatives for any of its candidates for any office.
20A-11-508 (1) • (a) Each registered political party that fails to file the interim reports due on August 31 or before the regular general election is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.
(b) The lieutenant governor shall report all violations of Subsection (1) (a) to the attorney general.
(2) Within 30 days after a deadline for the filing of a summary report required by this part, the lieutenant governor shall review each filed report to ensure that:
(a) each political party that is required to file a report has filed one; and
(b) each report contains the information required by this part.