Both the Republican and Democratic candidates for attorney general have received campaign contributions from law firms, including several that do business with the state.
According to financial disclosure reports filed with the lieutenant governor's office, Republican Scott Burns has raised more than $53,000 through Wednesday and Democrat Jan Graham, nearly $183,000.Burns, the Iron County attorney, has collected more than $6,000 from law firms. His biggest single contribution from a law firm is $2,500, from VanCott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy.
That law firm - which gave Graham the same amount - earned almost $18,000 from the state so far this budget year for work on cold fusion and patents as well as representing the Utah Sports Authority.
Ray, Quinney & Nebeker donated $500 each to Burns and Graham. The firm has made nearly $46,000 this budget year through its contract with the attorney general's office to handle bond matters for the state.
Graham's contributions from law firms, which total more than $17,000, also include $1,500 from Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough, where she was a partner before being named Utah solicitor general by Attorney General Paul Van Dam.
That law firm is probably the best-known of the many that have been hired by Van Dam to represent the state in various lawsuits. Van Dam is not seeking re-election and has endorsed Graham.
Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough was picked by the attorney general to defend the state's law banning most abortions against a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The law firm was forced to resign from the case after less than seven months' work because of a conflict of interest, but not before billing the state more than $180,000.
Graham also got a $100 contribution from the attorney hired to replace Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough on the abortion lawsuit, Mary Anne Wood.
Critics of the attorney general's office said the incident showed that too much money is being spent on outside counsel to defend lawsuits that should be handled by the state's attorneys.
The issue has been raised again and again during the campaign by both Burns and Graham. Both candidates promise to reduce the amount spent on outside counsel.
And both said Wednesday they would not be influenced by contributions from law firms in the few instances where outside counsel will still be needed because of a conflict of interest or the complexity of the case.
"With the small amounts of money I've received from the legal community, I feel no obligation to reciprocate by giving them outside counsel cases from the attorney general's office," Burns said.
Burns labeled Graham "the downtown big law firms' candidate. That's evidenced by her ability to raise a tremendous amount of money from those law firms."
Graham, who said concerns that contributions could lead to con-flicts of interest are "a non-issue," said law firms aren't thinking about future contracts with the state when they make donations.
"Law firms don't contribute to attorney general candidates to get outside counsel work," Graham said. "Law firms want someone they respect, someone they trust . . . someone who's going to deal fairly with their clients."
Law firms are traditionally among the largest group of contributors to attorney general campaigns, she said. "They don't want a Rambo attorney general who's trying to shake things up at the expense of their clients."
The other candidate in the race, Libertarian John Michael Coombs, reported just two contributions totaling $150 since the primary election. Both came from lawyers.