Lichfield donations
Campaign donations by Robert Lichfield and his
family or business associates during the 2002 and
2004 elections total $1,016,607.
Top 10:
- Republican National
Committee...........................$255,600
- Utah Republican Party........$165,900
- Arizona Republican Party...$150,000
- John Swallow*......................$118,000
- Sen. Bob Bennett, R-UT........$68,500
- Jon Huntsman, Jr.**................$65,000
- Jim
Hansen**..........................$47,433
- New York Republican
State Committee....................$32,000
- Marty Stephens
(Utah House Speaker)...........$31,500
- Geoffrey Davis***....................$14,000
*Utah congressional candidate
**Utah gubernatorial candidate
***Kentucky congressional candidate
Source: Federal Elections Commission. Utah State
Elections Office. New York State Elections Office.
The Salt Lake Tribune
|
A bill permitting state
regulation of boarding schools for troubled teens was
quietly smothered in the Utah Capitol this year after the
founder of a chain of controversial schools, who is a major
Republican donor, lobbied key lawmakers.
Powerful legislators,
including House Speaker Marty Stephens, held back the
measure until the Legislature's clock ran out at midnight on
March 3 - the final day of the session.
Six days later, the bill's
biggest opponent, World Wide Association of Specialty
Programs and Schools founder Robert Lichfield, presented a
$30,000 check to Stephens' campaign for governor.
Since then, one of the
handful of Utah boarding schools, which would have been
regulated under the bill, Majestic Ranch, near Randolph,
Utah, has been investigated three separate times for alleged
abuse, according to state Human Service officials. Only one
ended in a criminal charge and conviction when a staffer -
no longer employed there - pleaded guilty to misdemeanor
assault.
Majestic Ranch is owned by
Lichfield's brother-in-law, Dan Peart, who donated $500 to
Stephens. The ranch is among seven troubled-teen schools
affiliated with World Wide in four states and two foreign
countries.
Several others have been
shut down amid allegations of abuse or squalid living
conditions, including the Casa by the Sea facility near
Ensenada, Mexico, closed last weekend by government
officials. More than 500 students were returned to the
United States from the program.
Ken Stettler, director of
the Utah Office of Licensing, remains convinced he had the
votes to pass Senate Bill 140, giving his office regulatory
authority over Majestic Ranch, if only Stephens and others
had allowed it to come up for a vote.
"It still goes back to the
old deal that, you know, if you are giving political
contributions, then when the time comes and you need to call
in your chips, you're going to have a listening ear, which
is more than a lot of the citizenry has," says Stettler.
Other Lichfield-related donation recipients
Bush-Chaney 2004..........................$12,600
National Republican
Senatorial Committee.....................$10,790
Rep. Bob Bishop, R-UT..................$8,000
Rep. James Barrett, R-SC.............$7,550
New York Gov. George Pataki.......$5,000
Utah Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C......$4,000
Utah Rep. Steve Urquart,
R-St.
George....................................$2,500
Utah Rep. David Clark,
R-St.
George....................................$2,500
National Republican
Congressional Committee.............$2,500
Nolan Karras
(Utah gubernatorial candidate)......$2, 384
Patricia Ritchie (New York state
Assembly candidate)......................$2,000
New York State
Sen. Jim Wright, R-Watertown.......$1,500
Rick Clayburgh (North Dakota
Congressional candidate)..............$1,000
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT...................$1,000
Utah Sen. Bill Hickman,
R-St.
George.....................................$750
Judge Stander,
New York Supreme Court................$200
Source: Federal Elections Commission. Utah
State Elections Office. New York State Elections
Office.
The Salt Lake Tribune
|
If cash is the secret to
opening political doors, Lichfield and his profitable
network of schools are well on their way to securing the
master key.
The La Verkin entrepreneur,
his family members and business associates have poured more
than million into political campaigns during the 2002
election and so far this year. The contributions - all to
Republican candidates, and many to Utah politicians - have
come like a desert downpour: fierce and sudden.
The family donated no more
than a couple of thousand dollars prior to Jan. 1, 2001.
Lichfield told The Tribune
there was nothing nefarious about his sudden plunge into the
political arena.
"We've been abundantly
blessed, and when you're blessed, we feel you have a
responsibility to bless others," he said, confirming that
World Wide member schools gross more than $70 million
annually.
The family's charitable
contributions dwarf political donations, Lichfield added,
putting the former donations at $3 million last year.
Utah politicians who were
among the biggest benefactors of the Lichfield election-year
largesse insisted they never had discussed issues with their
patron.
U.S. House candidate John
Swallow has received 18,000 from Lichfield and his
associates, more than any other candidate.
Swallow's campaign manager,
Tim Garon, said Swallow had not met Lichfield until 2002,
when the Lichfield family handed over 30 checks on a single
day totaling $30,000 to Swallow's campaign.
"John and I are close
friends," said Lichfield. "We just connected as families."
After his 2002 election
loss, Swallow did legal work for a Lichfield company in
Nevada. As a state representative, Swallow had twice
sponsored legislation that would have allowed parents to get
a tax break for enrolling their children in a private
school.
Lichfield said he has
"mixed emotions" about tuition-tax credits, although "you
obviously see I have an incentive to be for them." Although
such tax breaks would benefit private schools, including
World Wide members, he said he has reservations about
hurting public schools by draining resources.
As with Swallow, Sen. Bob
Bennett met Lichfield just a few years ago, but has become a
friend. They don't discuss policy, said Bennett's
spokeswoman, Mary Jane Collipriest.
Last year, Lichfield sent
Bennett a form letter supporting a Medicare reform bill,
according to Collipriest. The bill expanded Health Savings
Accounts, which allow parents to make tax-free contributions
to an account that can be used for medical costs, including
the type of residential treatment provided by schools
affiliated with World Wide.
Lichfield said he doesn't
remember the letter or the issue.
He said he hasn't pressed
his issues on Bennett nor any of the Utah gubernatorial
candidates who have received 40,000 so far this year from
the Lichfield family and business associates.
"I don't think I've ever
sat down and given them a litmus test," Lichfield said.
"There were so many good candidates."
Republican gubernatorial
nominee Jon Huntsman Jr. concurs.
"We have not talked about
any of his issues. I do not know a whole lot about his
business," said Huntsman, who accepted $60,000 from
Lichfield and $5,000 from Majestic Ranch. "What business is
he in?"
Former U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen
took more than $45,000 from Lichfield for his unsuccessful
campaign for governor this year.
"Bob Lichfield is a great
American," said Hansen. "I don't know a thing about" the
string of schools for troubled youth.
Stephens, the outgoing
House speaker whose bid for governor ended unsuccessfully in
the May 8 Republican State Convention, did not return eight
messages for comment over a period of more than two weeks.
"Believe me, the check had
nothing to do with SB140," said Lichfield. "Marty Stephens
was going to get a donation from me no matter what happened
to SB140. Marty Stephens is a quality guy."
Lichfield shrugs off any
suggestion he has, in just two years, become a political
power broker.
"I'd like to use my means
and resources to bless peoples' lives. Does that also imply
influencing policy-makers to make good policies that support
good family values, quality education and the things I
believe in? Definitely. I'd like to have some influence in
that," he said.
Reps. Steve Urquhart and
Dave Clark, both St. George Republicans, helped stall SB140
in the Legislature's House Rules Committee after consulting
with Lichfield family members and their business associates.
Each received $2,500 in donations in 2002 from Lichfield.
Urquhart, who said he was
representing a constituent and his philosophy of limited
government, acknowledged consulting with Stephens.
Stettler identified
Stephens as a key player in the demise of SB140 - a claim
confirmed by bill-sponsoring Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West
Jordan.
"He was determined it
wasn't going to pass," said Buttars.
Buttars, who shepherded the
bill through the Senate, came under attack himself because
he is the head of Utah Boys Ranch, which also treats
troubled youth.
"Mine is a full, licensed
residential program and I think that makes me a better
facility," he said. "I'm prejudiced and I admit that. I
think every kid deserves to have his food, safety and
shelter guaranteed by oversight."
Buttars declined to comment
on Lichfield or his affiliated companies directly.
"There are some huge forces
that I took on there. . . . I really don't want to talk much
about that," he said. "This is a mean, ugly game with money
going in lots of directions."
Ken Kay, World Wide's
president, questioned Buttars' sponsorship of a bill that
would affect his competitors.
"Personally, I found that
dazzling that here's a guy that has something to do with
this Utah Boys Ranch in there trying to do this," said Kay.
He dismisses as "baloney"
the claim by Stettler and Buttars that the bill simply would
have allowed state licensing officials to inspect Majestic
Ranch twice a year - including once in an unannounced visit.
Kay said the legislation
would have required professional diagnoses of the 65
youngsters at Majestic Ranch and allowed regulators to pore
through "private financial records" and dictate "how you
conduct [operations] and train staff and who they are."
Kay said there is simply no
need for the state to have such a strong hand in the
boarding schools' operations.
"We see certain bureaucrats
that want more control. I think it has a lot to do with
power," said Kay. "I think we are every bit as sensitive, if
not more sensitive, to children's rights and safety. We have
a total anti-abuse stand - 100 percent."
But the
Association-affiliated schools have a checkered record.
Government agencies in the Czech Republic, Costa Rica and,
most recently, Mexico have shut down schools.
In South Carolina,
inspectors put Carolina Springs Academy's license on
probation after administrators failed to report child abuse.
They also found students sleeping on stained, torn
mattresses in unfit dormitories and problems with how
students were restrained.
Regulators also banned
Lichfield's brother, Narvin, from the facility based on his
operation of the Costa Rican school.
Congressman George Miller,
D-Calif., has twice asked the Justice Department to
investigate the schools, and more recently Rep. Jack Quinn,
R-N.Y., made a similar request. The Bush administration has
said it lacks the authority to initiate such a probe.
The Justice Department said
it has forwarded the complaints to the U.S. Attorney for
Utah and the FBI field office, but a spokeswoman for the
U.S. Attorney said nothing has come of the referral.
Meantime, Attorney General
Mark Shurtleff, whose office two years ago unsuccessfully
prosecuted the director of Majestic Ranch on abuse charges,
as recently as last week toured one of the affiliated
schools in St. George with Urquhart.
Shurtleff's campaign has
received no Lichfield contributions, a spokeswoman said.
Lichfield said in his two
or three meetings with Shurtleff, he has never attempted to
get Shurtleff to rein in investigators or prosecutors. He
said he doesn't have that kind of influence and wouldn't use
it if he did.
Scott Simpson, a former
executive director of the Utah Republican Party, spoke with
Lichfield often during the 2002 campaign.
"From my perspective, it
seemed based on ideology," said Simpson. "There are a few
ways you can get involved in politics. You can run for
office, you can be the grass-roots guy pounding in the lawn
signs or you can be the guy who writes the check."
dharrie@sltrib.com;
gehrke@sltrib.com
See related:
Psychologist's View
of Casa By The Sea
See related:
Correspondence
between Congressman George Miller and Attorney General John
Ashcroft about alleged human rights violations of children
in WWASPS facilities , 2003 - 2004
