As Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz's lawyers and accountants push deeper into the questions of her and estranged husband Joe Waldholtz's finances, the public and political defense of the embattled freshman congresswoman is shaping up.
Simply put, even though Enid knew her father was lending her and Joe more than $1 million, she was unaware any of the money was going into the campaign.Instead, she believed what her father, Forrest Greene, was told by Joe that Joe needed the money, in part, to pay off outstanding debts.
Meanwhile, Gov. Mike Leavitt said Wednesday that Enid Wald-holtz has to quickly lay all the facts on the table and has to tell all. If she fudges or leaves out important facts, her constituents may not give her another open shot at an explanation.
Enid Waldholtz put $1.8 million of her own funds into the 1994 race, and by law one can't borrow that money from relatives or friends - it must be your own cash. Where that money came from is the congresswoman's biggest political problem.
Her attorney, Charles Roisatcher, says while it isn't yet clear exactly where the money Joe Waldholtz put into the campaign really came from, if it did come via loans from her father, Enid Waldholtz didn't know it.
"If (Enid) knew loans were coming in (from her father), she never believed the money" was going into the campaign, Roisatcher says. "The money was loaned (by Forrest Greene) so that Mr. Waldholtz could resolve and reconcile financial issues that he had and that he couldn't resolve with his own money because his own money was frozen and otherwise not usable," Roisatcher said.
"If that is her story, it's hard to sell the public on it. I don't believe it," said Mike Zuhl, state Democratic Party chairman.
"Enid was a corporate attorney, the deputy chief of staff to the governor (Norm Bangerter) and now a congresswoman. To say she had no clue to where millions of dollars were coming in - especially so much money and especially at the end of the campaign and used the way it was - well, it's just too hard to believe she didn't know where it was coming from," Zuhl said.
If nothing else, she should have "asked directly where it came from," adds Zuhl.
Enid Waldholtz has said before that she believed the money was coming from Joe's assets. As it turned out, Joe had no assets, no trust fund, but may have been spending part or all of his grandmother's $700,000 estate.
But if Joe Waldholtz was telling Forrest Greene that he needed big loans because his assets were frozen by litigation, then how could Enid have believed the $1.8 million was coming from Joe's frozen assets? Such questions remain unanswered, at least for now.
And such questions, even fully explained by the congresswoman, would likely haunt her 1996 re-election campaign.
As it stands, said Zuhl, Salt Lake attorney Jim McConkie is the likely Democratic choice to run for Enid's seat next year. But former Democratic Rep. Karen Shepherd returned on Monday from two weeks in the Middle East to say she will seriously consider another race against Enid Waldholtz.
"If Karen should decide to run, I imagine other would-be candidates on our side would step aside for her," Zuhl said.
But Enid Waldholtz, while saying she won't resign, hasn't yet detailed her plans for 1996. Last week, state GOP officials said there would be "frank" discussions with Waldholtz about her re-election.
But they've backed away since, with the GOP Utah delegation issuing strong statements of support and the state Republican Central Committee voting unanimous support of Waldholtz at least until she gives her much-awaited public explanation of what's happened.
The shape of that public explanation is taking place now, however. As reported previously by the Deseret News, a national political consulting firm, Eddie Mahe Co., is advising her - even writing some of her statements coming out of her Washington, D.C., office. The constant theme is that Joe Waldholtz handled all the campaign finances and any irregularities belong solely to him.
Brigham Young University political science department chairman David Magleby, who taught Enid Greene federal election law when she attended the BYU law school, says statutes are clear - the candidate is ultimately responsible for her Federal Election Commission reports.
Magleby, a Democrat, was one of six people asked by U.S. Senate leaders in 1990 to consult on campaign-finance law reform. He's been quoted in dozens of national publications over 10 years as an expert on FEC regulations.
Magleby said if it turns out that $1.8 million of illegal money went into Enid Waldholtz's campaign, it would be the biggest FEC fraud since the law was drastically changed in 1974 outlawing large, outside gifts to federal campaigns. "Such a violation - whether Enid knew about it or not - would be unprecedented. No question about it," Magleby said.
Republican Party state leaders couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. But this past week they've issued several statements strongly supporting Enid Wald-holtz and saying Utahns should withhold judgment until she explains what has happened.
Leavitt - who performed the marriage for Joe and Enid in an August 1993 civil ceremony - said Wednesday that Enid Waldholtz needs to clear up all questions soon and make such explanations solid. Leavitt offered the advice during his monthly KUED news conference.
"To begin with," Leavitt said, Waldholtz must offer a "full and complete" explanation of the financial transactions that have led to an investigation by the FEC.
"She deserves a chance to make her case," he added. But she also "needs to do it as soon as possible and she needs to do it in a way that is clear."
Leavitt predicted Waldholtz will have "one shot" to make her case to her constituents, and if it appears she is being anything less than forthright, her political career will be over.
And even if she is candid, there are no guarantees she can rebound from her "period of great tur-moil."
"Clearly, the events of the last two weeks . . . will have a substantial impact on any race Rep. Waldholtz is involved in" in 1996, Leavitt said. "It will be a factor."
Leavitt admitted that everything he knows about the Waldholtzes' legal troubles comes from media accounts and that it is too early to make political judgments about what happened or Enid's political future. But it is imperative, he said, that Waldholtz "lay the facts on the table."
Leavitt rejected any parallels between Waldholtz's troubles, which stem from how her campaign was financed, and the FEC investigations into the campaign finances of Rep. Bill Orton, D-Utah, and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.
Their problems, Leavitt said, "are in an entirely different category," much less severe. Because of the complexity of campaign disclosure laws, Leavitt added that just because someone is mentioned in an FEC investigation is no proof they did anything wrong.
Leavitt said he has had no conversations with Enid Waldholtz but has had two brief discussions with her staff, once when an aide to the congresswoman called to say Joe Waldholtz was missing and once after Waldholtz turned himself in to federal authorities.