Or it might have helped purchase wedding gifts for the candidate's friends, a PDA for a campaign manager or, maybe, pay a parking ticket.

During the past three years, current legislators have spent $2,268 on clothing, given $2,332 to the National Rifle Association and paid for $34,360 worth of cell phone bills, all using campaign funds.

A good chunk of donations to Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, went to pay his whopping $6,000 cell phone bill. Meanwhile, Lehi Republican Sen. Mark Madsen's baby sitters pocketed more than $1,000 of his campaign cash.

Under current state law, legislators have no restrictions on how they use campaign funds - and they want to keep it that way. A bill that would prohibit candidates and officeholders from using that money for personal expenses was shot down at its first committee hearing earlier in the legislative session.

Still, legislators are quick to justify all expenditures by relating them to their campaigns or official duties.

Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, who spent $820 on clothing, said that he doesn't typically wear suits, and clothes purchased with his campaign money are reserved for meetings that involve the Legislature.

Rep. Neal Hendrickson, D-West Valley City, paid for a parking ticket out of his campaign money because he received the citation at the state Democratic Convention. "The reason I was there was because I was a candidate," he said. "It was part of my campaign."

Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, used a "but for" test when doling his funds out to baby sitters. He would ask, "But for the campaign, would we be going to this event?"

As a member of Senate Democratic leadership, Davis said he used his cell phone to talk to candidates and only used his campaign funds to pay for the portion of the bill directly tied to legislative purposes. He said he was lukewarm on the bill cracking down on uses of campaign cash because, he said, "It muddies the water more than it clarifies it."

But supporters of tighter regulation of campaign funds say the issue couldn't be any murkier than it is now.

What is reasonably related to political purposes or the duties of an office seems to be entirely a matter of personal interpretation. "That's the question," said Sen. Patrice Arent, D-Murray, a co-sponsor of the bill. "How is it related?"

Arent and fellow co-sponsor Sen. Karen Hale, D-Salt Lake City, agree that buying suits, purchasing a cell phone or paying for gas while traveling could be legitimate campaign expenses. "I think if a legislator can justify that and his constituents understand that justification, then that's fine," Hale said.

But then there are the other times. "Sometimes this money constitutes a small windfall for a legislator," said Anthony Musci, Utah chairman of Common Cause. "Or it's money which a legislator needs to buy loyalty and influence," he added, calling such uses "probably inappropriate."

Under current law, not only are candidates and officeholders free to use campaign money however they wish, but they can pocket whatever cash is left after an election, win or lose - or when they retire.

Sen. Bill Hickman. R-St. George, said that this isn't really a problem because usually the balances in campaign accounts are relatively low. He sits with a reported $13,000 in his account.

But state reports show that there is as much as $50,000 in the campaign accounts of some legislators - such as Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, and Senate Revenue and Taxation Chairman Curtis Bramble, R-Provo. The account of Senate Rules Chairman Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, holds more than $62,000.

Current legislators have a combined balance of nearly $1.2 million in their campaign accounts, according to a Tribune review of financial disclosures, all of which they can keep if they resign or retire. The only restriction is that if the money goes into a person's private account, he or she is required to pay income taxes on it.

"It gives legislators the incentive to go out and fund raise because they can just pocket it all," said Claire Geddes, a citizen advocate of campaign finance and ethics reform. "They could personally do as much fund raising as they want and walk off with it."

Currently, 23 states have some sort of restriction on personal use of campaign funds.

"We have some of the weakest campaign ethics laws in the nation," Geddes said. And this is "one of the serious flaws. . . . One that should be fixed as soon as possible."