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Daily Herald, February 17, 2009
Ace Stryker  Ned Hill
Ned Hill is a former dean of Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Business and a finance professor who is currently on sabbatical. His wife, Claralyn, ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for a seat in the state House of Representatives last year. Hill told the Daily Herald that a board member asked him to meet privately with local Republican lawmakers -- including Chris Herrod, his wife's former opponent for House District 62 -- to apologize for implications his wife had made that their offices needed ethical reform.Hill said Claralyn, who lost the election 40-60 to Herrod, did not argue that any particular politician was unethical and does not owe anyone an apology. He said he also thought it was inappropriate that the request came before other parts of the hiring process, such as a formal interview, had been initiated.
"I felt like people were saying, 'Well, now you have to be the right political person,' " he said. "I am a Republican, but because my wife ran against them, I had to apologize for my wife running for office."
Claralyn Hill said she's been a lifelong Republican and only changed parties about two years ago in an attempt to try to "rebuild a two-party system" in Utah County. She said she ran on a platform of ethics reform in general, and was surprised when some incumbent politicians apparently took her words personally.
"We knew that there would be repercussions for running as Democrats," she said. "I was surprised that this happened, but I wasn't surprised that something happened."
Under a section titled "Ethical Government" on her campaign Web site, voteforhill.org, Hill does take a dig at Herrod's record on ethics reform, if not his own behavior: "During his two years appointed in the Legislature, my opponent has failed to do anything to tackle this problem. Utah has among the most liberal laws in the United States regarding conflicts of interest and gifting."
Claralyn said her husband was caught off-guard also by the timing of the request. He worried it could look like an advantage he was receiving over other candidates for the job, she said.
"It put us in a position where he would have been breaking the rules," she said. "He had been asked to do something, and we weren't even sure it was legal."
Herrod told the Daily Herald he had nothing to do with the request for an apology and doesn't feel like he's owed one. He said rather than get caught up in the back-and-forth, he's been busy concentrating on the current legislative session.
"Campaigns are campaigns. I'm certainly past the campaign," he said. "I don't think that Ned needs to say anything to me. I think there was a little hard feelings on both sides, but that's, I guess, the nature of campaigns."
A call to the board of regents was not returned Monday.
Ned Hill said he's happy to start teaching classes at BYU again in the fall and to continue his work as the economic director of the Marriott School's Peery Institute of Financial Services. Claralyn said she has no further plans to run for office as a Democrat or otherwise.
"Partisan politics is not something we have a real feel for," she said. "I don't have any plans, but what I do want is to be a contributing community member."
It is the board of regents' job to select a new university president, a nonpartisan position. The office has been served by interim President Elizabeth Hitch since William Sederberg left to become Utah's commissioner of higher education last year.
Hitch said earlier this month that a series of interviews had narrowed the UVU presidential candidates to a final group. The group of three to five candidates should be made public in March, and Hitch said she is not one of them.
Ace Stryker can be reached at 344-2556 or
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