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It's a mystery that would make Agatha Christie proud.

The Utah Republican Party inadvertently seemed to endorse a campaign flier that blasted a Republican.

The opponent of the flier's target, also a Republican, posted on her Facebook page that she knew nothing of the flier until after the fact, so some nice folks just decided to help her out without her knowledge.

The flier's postage was paid by the state GOP because of the party's discounted postage rate. But, said party Chairman James Evans, that didn't mean an endorsement. The party does that for any Republican who asks.

The party was reimbursed for the postage cost through a contribution from a PAC that did not exist at the time of the contribution, according to the records of the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office.

So. Did you get all that?

The race in question was the Utah Board of Education's District 11, which covers the southwest segment of Salt Lake County.

And while school board races are technically non-partisan, political parties were heavily involved, as well as Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who endorsed several school board candidates, and his GOP primary opponent Jonathan Johnson.

The beneficiary of the mysterious flier was Lisa Cummins, a member of the fiercely anti-Common Core Utah Republican Women's Liberty Caucus.

Cummins was endorsed by Johnson. Her opponent, Erin Preston, was endorsed by Herbert, as well as other prominent Republicans and the Utah Education Association, whose endorsement was used against Preston in the flier.

Because the flier's postage was paid for by the Republican Party, by law it included the declaration: "Paid for by the Utah Republican Party." Preston felt that implied a Republican endorsement of Cummins, who won the race in a relatively close election. Evans said that because Preston is a Republican, like Cummins, she too could have used the party's discount postage had she asked.

But here's where it gets interesting.

The request to use the party's postal permit came from Sasha Clark, who was the communications director for Johnson's campaign.

Johnson's company, Overstock.com, was a main contributor to the failed effort to give tax credits or vouchers to parents who enroll their children in private schools, a proposal staunchly opposed by the UEA and other supporters of traditional education.

When I asked Clark who was behind the flier and who paid for it, she simply said she was not an officer of the PAC in question and provided no further information.

When the party was reimbursed through a $3,000 donation on Nov. 3, the check was signed by Mike McCauley, a former Republican Party treasurer and a CPA who often handles campaign finance business for different organizations. On the top of the check was the name of the PAC that was the apparent source of the money "Utah Run to 1."

But that PAC was not registered with the Lieutenant Governor's Office.

Preston has filed a complaint with the Lieutenant Governor's Office because the cost of the flier has not appeared on anyone's campaign finance disclosure forms.

When I began asking this week about the PAC and how it could make a contribution to the Republican Party without being registered with the state, the Lieutenant Governor's Office received the registration information, along with four contributions totaling $13,000 that were received by the PAC on Nov. 2 and 3, right about the time the party received the $6,000 contribution to cover its mailing costs for the Cummins flier and for a flier for District 4 School Board candidate Dave Thomas, whose UEA-backed opponent Jennifer Graviet is an active Democrat. Graviet won that race.

PACs, like political parties, don't have to file their expenditures until after the first of the year.

So perhaps we'll find out then who paid for the mysterious Republican-backed flier that blasted a candidate who was a Republican delegate.

If only Hercule Poirot were around to ferret out the details before then. —