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Show Parents Say UEA Violates Election Law SALT LAKE CITY -Parents for Choice in Education PAC today filed an elections complaint com-plaint with Lt. Governor Gayle McKeachnie. The complaint alleges UEA President Pat Rusk and union building representative representa-tive Elizabeth MacFarlane used public funds to recruit volunteers volun-teers for Democrat Scott Matheson's campaign. Rusk emailed MacFarlane and union building representatives representa-tives across the state, asking them to distribute and support a request from the Matheson campaign. cam-paign. MacFarlane then for- warded Rusk's email to her col-! leagues during contract time; from a publicly funded email' address. "This revelation will surprise no one," said Elisa Peterson, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education PAC. "The union has a long track record of using public funds in partisan campaigns." Sect. 20A-H-1203 of Utah's election law prohibits public entities from "making expenditures expendi-tures from public funds for political purposes." Using a (See UEA on page 4AJ. . UEA From Front Page publicly-funded email address during working hours to distribute distrib-ute campaign literature is a clear violation of Utah's election laws. "The union has every right to participate in elections," continued contin-ued Peterson, "but they can not be allowed to misuse public funds. She continued, "Our public pub-lic officials must not tolerate these abuses. They should reprimand repri-mand the union, and do what is necessary to ensure these abuses end." |