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Summary: According to state statute, all state office candidates are required to file financial reports (even if they received no contributions or had no expenditures).  The Elections Office can admittedly offer no reports listing Olene Walker during her tenure as Lieutenant Governor.

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During Olene Walker’s tenure as Lieutenant Governor of Utah (1993 to 2003), she did not at any time file a financial report as a state candidate for office or as an officeholder as prescribed by Utah Election Laws. Under state statute 20A-11-101, the definition of "state office candidates" includes the Lieutenant Governor, and 20A-11-203 and 20A-11-204 require "state office candidates" to file a financial report, even if they received no contributions or had no expenditures.

State office candidates who fail to file in a timely fashion are supposed to be disqualified. They are also supposed to receive a warning from the lieutenant governor, and if they do not comply, they are guilty of a class B misdemeanor. (State statute 20A-11-206)

On January 11, 2001, I notified Olene Walker of her failure to comply with Utah Elections Laws by sending a copy of my complaint to her and then-Attorney-General, Jan Graham. Walker’s director of the Elections Division, Amy Naccarato, replied in a letter dated February 28, 2001:

"…This office has not required lieutenant governor candidates to file a report separate from the candidates for governor. The assumption is that these candidates run on the same ticket and that their campaign committees are one and the same. As long as the disclosure is accurate and complete, the campaign committee is considered to be in compliance with the law… If this law applies to Olene Walker, as you claim, then it must apply to all past lieutenant governor candidates. I can see no benefit in interpreting the law to mean that all past candidates for lieutenant governor are in violation of the law..."

The statutory language is clear: Each statewide candidate is required to file. Governor Leavitt’s statement of organization for his personal campaign committee filed in 2000 lists himself and the office of governor. There is no mention in it of the lieutenant governor, and therefore it provides no accountability for Olene Walker or her candidacy.

Ms. Naccarato, an employee in the office that was headed by Olene Walker, implies that it is acceptable behavior to continue to ignore statutes if they have been ignored in the past.

I received another interesting reply dated February 12, 2001, from Colin R. Winchester, Assistant Attorney General (AAG) under Mark Shurtleff, stating that,

"…A team of experienced prosecutors and investigators in the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office has reviewed your complaint, the facts, and the applicable laws, and has concluded that there is no criminal violation at this time… The nature of your complaint raises the need for a review and probable amendment, of the financial reporting laws as they relate to candidates for the office of lieutenant governor..."

AAG Winchester copied this letter to Lieutenant Governor Walker and Ms. Naccarato, and offered the assistance of the AG’s Office in that process should they decide to pursue it in advance of the 2002 legislative session. The matter was ignored.

AAG Winchester’s response provides clues as to a loophole that likely shielded Lt. Governor Olene Walker from criminal prosecution. Notice the wording that the AG’s Office found no criminal violations "at this time". What does that mean? Consider state statute 20A-11-206:

2(c)(i) It is unlawful for any state office candidate to fail to file or amend a summary report within 14 days after receiving notice from the lieutenant governor under this section. Each state office candidate who violates Subsection (2)(c)(i) is guilty of a class B misdemeanor. [Emphasis added.]

No misdemeanor criminal charges can be filed unless the candidate who has failed to file first receives a notice from… the lieutenant governor. In other words, in order for Walker to have been prosecuted, she would have had to have given herself notice that she had failed to file!

Walker is in particular suspicion due to amounts paid to her by the Governors Special Projects/Governors Spring Gala Committee Political Action Committee(s) as noted in the following:

If these were campaign or political contributions, they must be disclosed by the recipient in accordance with the financial reporting requirements of Utah law. However, since Olene Walker’s name is not attached to a personal campaign committee, disclosure is not possible.

There is also a $5,000.00 check to the Lt. Governor’s Special Projects dated 9-15-97 that was never accounted for, as Walker did not have a Political Action Committee (PAC) at that time. What were all of these amounts for? State law does not allow officeholders to receive political contributions except through a campaign committee or a PAC.

The Lieutenant Governor’s web site makes clear the penalties for other candidates who fail to appropriately file their reports:

"Candidates for state executive and legislative office are required to report expenditures and contributions made to bring about their nomination or election. The reports must be received in the Lt. Governor's Office by 5 p.m. on the due date or clearly postmarked 3 days before the due date. If a candidate fails to file the required financial disclosure reports, the Lt. Governor will disqualify the candidate and remove his or her name from the ballot."

Should Utahns tolerate a Lt. Governor, now occupying the office of governor, who failed to file financial disclosure reports — particularly when her office was responsible for enforcing the reporting requirements?

Not if competence in, and respect for, the law matters.

Dorothy Littrell
228 West 3275 North
Ogden, Utah, 84414
801-782-5906
d.littrell@comcast.net

Accountability Utah suggests that citizens call Governor Olene Walker today at (801) 538-1000 and ask her why she did not file the required financial reports for over 10 years as Lieutenant Governor.

If in fact she admits to making an exception to the law for the sake of expediency, ask her why you should trust her not to do the same with your fundamental rights?

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Accountability Utah recipe: Take our information and opinion, research their information and opinion (if it is available), and then examine the law and draw your own conclusions. For more information on similar issues, see the Fraud, Waste, Abuse, & Ethics section of our Issues & Alerts page.

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