Expect more "dirty tricks and illegal activities" from Utah Republicans as they try to defeat Democratic Rep. Wayne Owens this year, says the chairman of the National Democratic Congressional Committee.
Recently, local Republican Party officials agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission for campaign finance violations in 1986. The violations occurred when the party paid for mass mailings and radio commercials for Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, in his 1st District re-election race against Gunn McKay, and GOP candidate Tom Shimizu in his race against Owens in the 2nd Congressional District.Hansen won re-election by a narrow 3 percent. Owens beat Shimizu handily and won re-election in 1988. Utah Republicans say their main goal in 1990 is defeating Owens, the lone Democrat in Utah's five-member congressional delegation.
The violations by Utah Republicans "read like a laundry list of what not to do," said Rep. Beryl Anthony Jr., D-Ark., chairman of the national Democratic group whose goal is election of Democrats to the U.S. House.
"They were so blinded by their obsession to defeat Wayne Owens that they resorted to blatantly breaking the law. When the dirty tricks and illegal activities start again this year, Utah voters will know exactly who to blame," Anthony said.
Greg Hopkins, Utah GOP executive director, who in 1986 was Shimizu's deputy campaign manager, said the violations were technical in nature, stemming from a misunderstanding in interpreting FEC rules. "The party officials who made those decisions are no longer working for the party," he added.
"Anthony's statement is irresponsible," said Hopkins. "At no time did the FEC say or even hint that the errors were intentional, and they weren't. We simply paid for some advertising out of the wrong accounts. It won't happen again and, of course, there will be no dirty tricks."
But Anthony says the FEC clearly stipulates what it considers legal campaign expenditures and contributions. "It is impossible for the (Utah) Republican Party to claim their violations were oversights," Anthony said.
The FEC investigation turned up a number of violations. Here are those to which the Utah Republican Party agreed. The party:
-Spent $51,885 more than legally allowed on "coordinated expenditures" of mailings and radio ads on behalf of Shimizu and Hansen - $8,195 for Hansen (for one mailing) and $43,690 for Shimizu (for four mailings and two radio ads).
The party could legally spend only up to $21,810 per candidate on such costs. The party made the donations after it had assigned its donation limit to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Duplication likely caused much of the overrun.
-Did not report those expenditures, as required by law. Hopkins said the party felt many of the expenses did not have to be reported because rules did not require disclosure of costs on work performed mostly by volunteers.
But a report by the FEC counsel said volunteers only picked up mailings from the printer, then stamped them with a non-profit organization seal and then delivered them to a company whose employees attached labels, sorted, bundled and mailed them.
The report said Republicans "thus essentially argue that the touching of each mailer by an individual volunteer transforms an otherwise commercial operation into exempt activity. This is squarely at odds with the legislative intent."
-Did not include disclosures on the ads and mailings funded by that money to show who paid for it and whether it was authorized by the candidate, as required by law.
-Also made many of those same expenditures illegally from a fund set up for state campaigns, not federal races. The party must maintain separate funds because some donations allowed in state races - such as those directly from corporations and labor unions - are illegal in federal races.
About $48,440 for the congressional races came from the state fund, but $16,000 was reimbursed by the federal account. The FEC said another $12,342 of spending from the state account may have also been spent for federal candidates because the party has no documentation about how it was spent.
-Paid $500 more than allowed in direct cash contributions to Shimizu's campaign by failing to note it was to retire primary election debt. The problem was corrected later on amendments to disclosure forms.
-Did not report an additional $5,059 spent on behalf of Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, who was also up for re-election in 1986. It was for a mailing asking voters to support both Garn and Shimizu. The letter cost twice that much, but the FEC counted half as among the earlier costs spent illegally for Shimizu.
-In addition, Shimizu's campaign was fined $175 in 1988 for failing to report a $10,000 donation from the National Republican Congressional Committee, then reporting it improperly later. Even though that agreement was reached two years ago, it was not announced by the FEC until last week with the rest of the case.
Shimizu said the problem was an oversight and was not intentional. "The people working with me apparently didn't know how to fill out the forms correctly . . . there was a lot going on at the time."
Shimizu, Hansen and Garn say they had no knowledge that the party's efforts on their behalf were illegal.
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Dueling words
Democrats: The GOP violations "read like a laundry list of what not to do. They were so blinded by their obsession to defeat Wayne Owens that they resorted to blatantly breaking the law. When the dirty tricks start this year, Utah voters will know exactly who to blame."
Republicans: "(The Democrats') statement is irresponsible. At no time did the FEC even hint that the errors were intentional, and they weren't. We simply paid for some advertising out of the wrong accounts. It won't happen again, and there will be no dirty tricks."