I was a bit stunned to find out this week that candidates for state offices don't have another financial report due until just a week before the November general election.
Silly me. I thought that, like federal candidates, people running for governor would have to report sometime this summer. But they don't.State law, changed several years ago, now says state candidates - for the offices of governor, attorney general, auditor, treasurer - report before the June primary and not again until just before the November election.
Gov. Mike Leavitt had several Republicans file against him, token candidates he easily eliminated in the May GOP state convention. He reported before the convention and on June 18 before the primary election.
That means Leavitt will raise and spend money from June until October (perhaps as much as $1 million) and citizens and the media won't get a look at those items until just before the final election.
Typically, major news organizations review the final reports and write stories about them. But it is difficult if not impossible for political opponents of all candidates to review the reports in detail and, if they find something that may turn to their advantage, make any hay from those items before Election Day.
When the primary election was in September, the reporting dates made some sense. You'd report before the June convention, again in September and again in November.
But then legislators moved the primary date to June and the convention dates to May. So now you report in May, in June (if you're running for governor or if you have a primary), in July if you don't have a convention battle and not again until November.
For big races, like the governorship and attorney general, going from a June filing to just days before the final election with no reporting is poor financial disclosure.
What if a candidate solicits and takes a lot of campaign money from big special- interest groups during the summer? What if they spend their campaign money on new cars for their kids or a Hawaiian vacation? (Remember, in Utah you can spend your campaign funds on anything; it doesn't have to be related to your campaign).
Citizens wouldn't know about those things until just days before the election.
Worse, it's no secret that cagey state and legislative candidates mail in their reports - the postmark on final campaign reports coming by midnight on the date due. It can take two or three days for the reports to finally show up in the lieutenant governor's office, giving very little time before the election for the media or political opponents to look over the reports.
There are 75 House races and 15 or 16 Senate races every two years. The number of legislative candidates combined with the postmark deadline make it very difficult to examine all the reports (late or on time) and write news stories about them. It's equally hard for opponents of those postmark-filers to put out a last-minute campaign piece criticizing an opponent's campaign financing, if that is warranted.
State Sen. Dave Buhler tried to require that all reports be in the files of the lieutenant governor's office 10 days before the final election - none of this postmark-on-the-due-date stuff. He introduced a bill, but it failed.
Because of how things work in the Utah Legislature, it will take some kind of scandal or some incumbent getting beaten by a high-spending challenger before the odd reporting dates will be changed.
At the very least there should be some kind of campaign report filed in September or early October for all state candidates.
By comparison, candidates for federal offices - U.S. House and Senate - have reports due in mid-July and mid-October.
So, if you want to know who's supporting Leavitt's July 26 golfing fund-raiser at Wasatch Mountain State Park - $600 per individual, $2,000 per foursome, $5,000 per hole sponsor and $10,000 per tournament sponsor - you'll have to wait until a week before the Nov. 5 election.
Or maybe you can pay $600, attend and write down everyone's name you happen to see.