From City Weekly: The $50,000 Question: Utah’s attorney general explains campaign donations received from company his office investigated for fraud

By Eric S. Peterson
Posted 06/19/2008

Jean Welch Hill, Democratic challenger to Republican heavyweight Mark Shurtleff, believes it’s time she took over as the state’s attorney general. Hill counts many reasons why she should get the seat, including Shurtleff’s courtship of the payday-loan industry and his conflict of interest in investigating the alleged bribery charges of political ally Mark Walker in the treasurer’s race—and now she can count at least 50,000 more reasons.

That’s one for each dollar Shurtleff accepted in campaign donations from Jeremy Johnson, president of the St. George company IWorks. While Shurtleff maintains that he only knew Johnson from meeting him once at a fund-raiser last March, several attorneys at the attorney general’s office have known of Johnson for much longer. That’s because they’d been investigating his company for more than a year for allegations of fraud.

“If you’ve been involved in litigation with some company,” says Hill. “Then you ought to have the discipline to say this isn’t the best donation for me to accept.”

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Utah's Next Attorney General, JEAN WELCH HILL!

Democratic Attorney General Nominee, Jean Welch Hill
Nomination Address
Utah State Democratic Convention 2008


Jean received at least three standing ovations at our State Convention. Watch the videos above to see why.

Teaser! Democratic Attorney General Nominee, Jean Welch Hill, State Convention Introduction Video

Utah Democratic Attorney General Nominee Jean Welch Hill on KVNU's For The People

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Give the Money Back AG Shurtleff!

JEAN WELCH HILL QUESTIONS SHURTLEFF'S ABILITY TO VIGOROUSLY DEFEND UTAH AGAINST ITALIAN NUCLEAR WASTE PLAN

Hill Says Shurtleff Should Return $26,400 In Campaign Contributions

SALT LAKE CITY – With campaign finance reports revealing that EnergySolutions is one of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's largest campaign contributors, Shurtleff's opponent today questioned whether Utahns can be confident that Shurtleff will vigorously defend them against EnergySolutions' controversial plan to dump Italian nuclear waste in Tooele County.

"If we are going to avoid becoming the world's nuclear dumping ground, Utah needs the strongest legal representation," said Jean Welch Hill, the Democratic nominee for Utah Attorney General. "With $26,400 of EnergySolutions' money invested in his campaign, it is not clear that Mark Shurtleff can provide the kind of independent leadership in court that Utah needs."

EnergySolutions filed suit on Monday against the Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management, of which Utah is a part. The Compact meets on Thursday to consider whether to approve EnergySolutions' plan to import radioactive waste from Italy for disposal at the company's Tooele facility. Gov. John Huntsman, Jr. has indicated that Utah will vote to block the waste. EnergySolutions questions the Compact's authority over its operations.

Campaign disclosures reveal that Mr. Shurtleff has received $26,400 in contributions from EnergySolutions and its corporate predecessor, Envirocare. Hill said that these contributions pose serious ethical concerns.

"Every law student knows that attorneys should avoid representing a client if the lawyer's personal interests, including financial interests, might affect his representation," Hill said. "At the very least, Shurtleff's huge campaign contributions from EnergySolutions create the appearance of a conflict of interest, with Mr. Shurtleff's important campaign donor on one side, and the citizens of Utah on the other."

"Conflict between EnergySolutions and the State is inevitable," Hill said. "Mr. Shurtleff never should have taken EnergySolutions' money, and at a minimum, he should return it now."

NEWS RELEASE: Jean Welch Hill Criticizes Shurtleff's "OVERLY COZY" Support for a Pro-Voucher Judicial Nominee

SALT LAKE CITY - Jean Welch Hill, the Democratic nominee for Utah Attorney General, today took issue with Attorney General Mark Shurtleff after he voiced strong support for a judicial nominee who was one of the principal advocates for last year's failed voucher effort.

"As a sitting Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff should not be fawning over a judicial nominee," Hill said. "Our judicial system depends on strict independence between the executive and judicial branches. The public's faith in the system is compromised if there is any question about that independence. Overly cozy comments about judicial nominees could raise serious concerns if the Attorney General's office ever has to appear before the judge, which would be a near certainty if the judge is confirmed by the Senate."

The judicial nominee is Clark Waddoups, who was nominated yesterday by President Bush to serve on the Utah district court. Shurtleff was quoted in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune as saying, among other comments, that Waddoups "goes above and beyond in everything he gets involved in," is "as qualified as they get," and is "a great pick."

Waddoups has a long history as a voucher proponent. He unsuccessfully represented pro-voucher forces before the Utah Supreme Court in an attempt to strike down the referendum that enabled Utahns to vote on the voucher program. The Supreme Court rejected Waddoup's arguments, and Utah voters subsequently rejected the voucher scheme in a resounding fashion.

Shurtleff has been a vocal voucher supporter as well, and has clashed with Jean Welch Hill on the subject. Ms. Hill, who is an attorney for the State Board of Education, advised the Board against implementing the controversial voucher program while the issue awaited the referendum vote. Shurtleff was intensely critical of Ms. Hill and stripped her of her status as a special assistant attorney general.

"It is alarming that Mr. Shurtleff went out of his way to comment about this particular judicial nominee, because they worked so closely together on the voucher debacle," Hill said. "It raises legitimate concerns about cronyism, and also suggests that Mr. Shurtleff hasn't learned many lessons from the voters' overwhelming rejection of vouchers last November."

It is absolutely the responsibility of the attorney general to enforce the state's minimal election laws

By Jean Welch Hill
Candidate for Utah Attorney General

It is time to end Utah's appallingly lax enforcement of what few campaign ethics laws it has.

The latest example of our fair state's laissez faire attitude toward campaign finance and disclosure is the recent Salt Lake Tribune article noting that heavy hitting, sophisticated corporate donors failed to file the required financial contribution reports with the Lieutenant Governor's office.

Despite these clear violations of state law, the response of our top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, was "that's not my responsibility."

It is absolutely the responsibility of the attorney general to enforce the state's minimal election laws. Given that $147,910 of the money contributed by corporations without proper disclosure went to the Attorney General, the least he could do is provide his generous benefactors with a reminder letter that the corporations do need to file a disclosure statement.

The attitude of Utah's current Attorney General toward ongoing violations of state election law is one of many reasons Utah's Republican dominated government continually fails to heed voter demands for ethics reform. Poll after poll shows that Utahns want comprehensive reporting of all lobbyist activities, yet the Legislature consistently refuses to even discuss the many bills brought forward by Democratic legislators. With an attorney general who is more than willing to ignore the violations of his own donors, there is little hope for reform.

Which is one more reason the state needs a Democratic attorney general with extensive experience prosecuting ethical violations. As a Democrat, I have little interest in maintaining the status quo of limited, and often untimely, lobbyist disclosure statements. As a prosecutor of educators who violate their professional ethical standards, I recognize the value of high standards for public employees and will advocate to raise the bar on elected officials to at least the level currently maintained by public school educators.

Violations of law are the responsibility of the state's Attorney General. To state otherwise shows a lack of respect for the state's Constitution and an unwillingness to fulfill the duties of the office.

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From Jean Hill: Utah needs an attorney general who will focus on people, not politics and do something to curb usuary

By Jean Welch Hill

Democratic Candidate for Attorney General

As an educator and a first time candidate for a statewide office, I find the campaign process to be a fascinating learning opportunity—one that should be shared for future aspirants to public service. As a part of a shared learning process, I will try to at least occasionally post some observations from the campaign trail.

While on the trail this week, I have been inundated with voice and emails of support. The kind words of so many friends and colleagues have been inspiring, and much needed as a face the, at times daunting, task of both raising $1,000,000.00 (so many, many zeros) and doing research on issues.

Thus far, the research portion of campaigning is my favorite part. Case in point: yesterday, a typical spring day that kept teasing me with moments of worth amidst gray skies, I walked to Crossroads Urban Center to meet with its director. In an hour of great import, I filled in several gaps in my knowledge about pay day lenders and the effect these extremely profitable businesses have on their far less prosperous clientele. Imagine paying anyone 10% PER WEEK interest on a loan. Times that by 52 weeks in a year, and you pay a whopping 520% interest in one year. Remember those early lessons in credit card debt that showed it would take the rest of your life to get out of credit card debt at 17% if you just made the minimum payment? Yet somehow a pay day loan at 520% is supposed to be a benefit to low income individuals.

What is less well understood, but potentially more costly to society at large, is the pay day lenders commitment to getting paid. A court in one city indicated to Crossroads that it had to hire three full-time employees just to handle the pay day lender collection cases; cases which make up 87% of the court’s cases. Those three employees are paid by taxpayers, as is at least one judge whose time is spent hearing pay day loan cases.

My meeting at Crossroads addressed other issues as well, and convinced me again of the very real need for an attorney general who will focus on people, not politics and do something to curb usury (charging outrageous interest rates on loans) in Utah (one of very few states that does not regulate pay day lenders in any substantive manner).

Stop Pay Day Loans Usury in Utah!