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Utah should set limits

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In politics, as in life, money talks. If a donor gives a campaign contribution to a candidate, the recipient feels beholden. The bigger the gift, the bigger the sense of obligation. That's Psychology 101.

So you might be surprised to learn that a committee in the Utah Legislature bottled up a bill the other day that would have set limits on donations to political candidates. Or, because this was the umpteenth time a legislative committee in Utah has done this, maybe you are not surprised.

The Beehive State is, after all, one of only a handful of states with no contribution limits whatsoever. Anyone, or any corporation, labor union or political action committee, can give any amount to any candidate for state office.

Did we mention, by the way, that it was the House Ethics Committee that voted 5-3 to hold the bill in committee? We do love irony.

Some members, most notably Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, took great offense at the suggestion that lawmakers listen more to their contributors than they do to others. We don't doubt that most legislators will give ear to any constituent. But if she does not believe that gratitude to a donor creates a sense of obligation, then she is denying human nature.

A more serious objection came from Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland. He said that the proposed caps would be meaningless because few legislators get donations as large as the proposed limits. HB164, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, would have set limits of $10,000 on single donations to candidates in statewide races, and $5,000 to candidates for the Legislature. The limits would apply to individuals, corporations, labor unions and political action committees.

Dougall has a point. Only 16 contributions to legislative candidates would have been prohibited by those limits during the last election cycle. Chavez-Houck chose those limits because they were the consensus recommendation of the Governor's Commission on Strengthening Utah's Democracy. The limits for legislative candidates should be lower, for example, $2,000.

The $10,000 limit for the governor's race would have dramatic effect, however. At one point it would have affected $520,000 in contributions to Gov. Gary Herbert's campaign last year and $309,000 in gifts to his opponent, Peter Corroon. The influence of campaign donations was an issue in that race.

So long as the size of donations remains unregulated, so will be the amount of influence a donor can attempt to buy.