The controversy about the failure of U.S. Senate challenger Mike Lee to register last year as a lobbyist gives us several important lessons in elementary government law.
Lee says he spoke with Michael Cragun, then a lawyer with the lieutenant governor's office, and was told that "answering questions about a bill's constitutionality wouldn't trigger a need to register as a lobbyist" ("Lawmakers say Lee acted as lobbyist," Tribune , June 4). The opinion was not reduced to writing, as it should have been.
Lee does not say he asked Cragun to refer his question to the attorney general's office, which Lee should have done, since it is the only state office authorized to issue legal opinions. Lee only says Cragun gave him an oral opinion, which is, as was said when I was attorney general, not worth the paper it is not written on.
The answer Lee says Cragun gave him -- that he would not actually be lobbying -- is on its face unbelievable. Surely the main law office of Lee's law firm, located in Washington, D.C., knows how to request a legal opinion from government that is worth something. Lee needs to learn how.
David L. Wilkinson Utah attorney general, 1981-89
Provo
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