The Utah Association of Realtors: The Biggest and Baddest PAC in the Land

Should Ogden voters consider the receipt of real estate PAC campaign donations by any Ogden Council candidate to be a disqualifying factor in the 2009 election?

Enlightening column in today's Deseret News, focusing on the political muscle of the Utah Association of Realtors. Bob Bernick's opening paragraphs provide the gist:

Even in these tough times in the housing market, the Utah Association of Realtors is still one of the most powerful financial political organizations on Capitol Hill.
New political-action-committee reports show that the group came away from the 2008 elections with $1 million in cash; has raised $261,000 already this year; spent $222,000 (mostly giving to its national PAC and to local Realtor associations) and has given legislators and Gov. Gary Herbert — none of whom will be running in elections this year — more than $56,000.
In the 2008 elections, the PAC gave legislative candidates, political parties and other PACs nearly $200,000, an analysis by the Deseret News shows. [...]
Chris Kyler, chief executive officer of the association, told the Deseret News several years ago that he wanted to build the best and biggest PAC in Utah.
Clearly, he's done so..

Read the full article here:

• Utah Realtors Association a powerful lobby group

With the above information in mind, we can't wait to get to get our hands on the first set of Ogden municipal election campaign finance disclosure statements, which, according to Ogden City's 2009 Candidate Guide to Elections (p.23), are due to be filed by 9/8/09:

Each candidate or personal campaign committee must file with the City Recorder a “Report of Contributions & Expenditures for Candidates”, signed by the candidate, by 5:00 p.m. on the following dates:
• September 8, 2009 – Seven days before the date of the primary election, if the candidate is involved in the primary election... .

We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for that first set of candidate reports; and well post them right here on this blog as soon as we get our hands on them.

As anyone who's paying attention knows, the real estate lobby is a prime driving force behind Boss Godfrey's "vision" for unbridled Emerald City development. Council candidates Mark B. Hains and and David Phipps are of course employed in the real estate industry, so we can take it as a given that they'll have plenty of realtor dough in their campaign warchests. What will be really interesting however, will be to find out which other council candidates turn out to be recipients of the real estate industry's 2009 Ogden City election campaign donation largess.

And here's a query for our gentle readers: Would it be wise for Ogden voters to consider the receipt of real estate PAC campaign donations by any Ogden Council candidate to be a disqualifying factor in the 2009 election? We have to confess we're leaning in that direction.

So what say our WCF readers about that?

The floor is now open for your comments.