Clark Memorandum
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I I WAS REMARKABLE. Democrat Bill Orton, 58 percent, versus Republican Karl Snow, 37 percent Bill Orton didn’t just YLe PemarLabL Campaign win the congressional election; he won it by one of the largest margins of any non- incumbent contest in the U.S -and it was in Utah’s Third Congressional District, considered by experts the most rock-solid Republican region anywhere But it is even more remarkable that BYU Law School graduate Orton ran for public office at of Orton all Just 10 months earlier the thought hadn’t crossed his mind, ever Most Democrats in the political arena hadn’t even heard of him After the election everyone was asking, “Who is this guy? Where did he come from?” In answering those questions, one will find an uncommon story, a story of a uniquely prepared individual by CLarLd a.Cranney who offers a cadre of talents to the 102nd U S Congress At the age of 16, Orton was a studious high school senior in Ogden, Utah, when the Internal Revenue Service opened up a large service center PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN SNYDER CLARK M Ehl OR AN D U M there. There weren’t enough people to Lake City and at Merritt & Tenney in glibly remarking that the United States staff it, and so managers recruited at Atlanta He also served as in-house needed elected officials with a broader the local high schools for four-hour counsel for a privately held forest- vision, those who could see “more than evening shifts Enter Bill Orton. products company and taught tax sem- just the tip of the iceberg ” His experience with the IRS con- inars across the nation His clients fter the conference several people, vinced him that he really wanted to be were from all areas of the United A many of whom had been to Or- a tax attorney After serving a mission States-“from Anchorage to Miami and ton’s seminars before, cornered him. for the Church in Oregon, he finished from New York to Honolulu,” he says. They said, in essence, “We’ve been list- his undergraduate studies at Brigham His love for the law seems only ex- ening to you for years You understand Young University in 1973 in anthropol- ceeded by his love of teaching the law what’s going on You certainly have the ogy and archaeology-the whole time And he is a good teacher-as the more knowledge and the ability You could working for the IRS. than 15,000 tax professionals who have do something about it.” “I didn’t have a lot of money saved now taken courses from him will attest He retorted, “I am I go back fre- up to go to law school right after grad- In 1986 he served as an adjunct pro- quently and talk to Congress members uation,” said Orton, “so I moved to fessor at the J Reuben Clark Law and their staff and try to educate them Oregon and worked with the and show them some solu- Internal Revenue Service. I tions to the problems ” planned on going to night law Then this group dropped school at Lewis and Clark ” the question, “Yes, but why With training, traveling, don’t you run for office?” and working, Orton never Orton scoffed “You must made it into night school be kidding! No way in the After a four-year IRS stint in world! You have to give up Oregon, the time of decision your private life. You have to came take a cut in pay. Nobody likes “I had a nice house, a lit- you Everybody’s always yell- tle sailboat (I lived on a lake), ing at you You can’t satisfy and an airplane and was fly- anybody You’ve got to run ing all over the place,” he for election every two years I said “I realized that at 27 can’t think of any reason I’d years old I had peaked out at BILL ORTON NEAR HIS HOME AT SUNDANCE. want to run for Congress ” the Internal Revenue Scr- After the Conference, Or- vice I’d have to stay at my ton stayed in Hawaii for a level for another 30 years be- couple of weeks Trying to re- fore I could even think of re- lax, he lay on the beach and tiring. That didn’t strike me went hiking through the rain as very fun, so 1 quit and came to the School, teaching seminars on real es- forests, but that conversation kept BYU Law School in 1977.” Most would tate tax planning and the 1986 Tax Act haunting him consider Orton’s law school cxperience Not a stranger to Washington, D C , “The whole time I kept thinking atypical: he has worked with congressional staff that maybe I had some sort of obliga- “Law school was purely pleasurable. members of the House Ways and Means tion to give back to the system, an I loved every minute of it. Thc first and Senate Finance Committees On obligation to serve the public ” year in law school I didn’t even check the American Bar Association, he Returning to his home above Sun- to see what my grades were I knew served on tax policy subcommittees dance in Provo Canyon, Orton noticed what I’d be doing when I graduated, that evaluated legislation before Con- the paper listed several people who had and I didn’t care about grades as long gress Many of his clients also come announced candidacy for the Third as I was passing ” from Washington, D.C. Congressional District He hadn’t real- ith a clear vision of his law future, So at the beginning of 1990 Bill ized that Congressman Howard W he took every law class offered in Orton was going along at a fast clip. He Nielson was retiring. (When Nielson tax and business. While still in school loved his work. He was paid well He had first run for office, Orton contrib- he started a business in Oregon that was satisfied. And he had no intention uted to his campaign.) provided tax and business law educa- of running for any political office. He knew former Utah Governor tional materials In February 1990 he was in Hawaii Scott Matheson and lone Utah Demo- Graduating in the top third of his teaching a tax conference He men- crat Congressman Wayne Owens class in 1980, his practice burgeoned, tioned the problems with tax legisla- (whom he took a legislative processes and he soon became of counsel at Par- tion and the savings and loan debacle it class from at the Law School in 1978), ker, McKeown, and McConkie in Salt helped create during the last decade, so he went to Salt Lake City to talk 18 CLARK MEMORANDUM AFTER ANNOUNCING HIS CANDIDACY, BILL ORTON SOON DEVELOPED AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN. about campaign prospects sire to go back and really get involved. appointment with these political “They were both extremely suppor- Yet I would want someone with knowl- groups, Orton would go into the cities tive and said, in essence, ‘If you can edge and experience 1 would want a few hours earlier and visit im- find reasons to run for office other someone who was mainstream on the promptu with business owners. These than winning, then we encourage you issues-morally, legally, ethically I businessmen would tell him their to do it, but you need to know that you would want someone who didn’t en- problems, how they felt about the fed- probably don’t have any chance at all of gage in double-talk-just being honest eral government, what they thought winning because of your district’s polit- with the people.” the government should be doing or not ical make-up ’ ” The problem with many politicians, doing. Then he would meet with the Orton’s parents and friends were Orton mused, is that if you ask them a commissions and councils, talking shocked he was considering a congres- question, at the end of the answer all about their communities. After the sional campaign His mother’s first re- you’ve heard is your question repeated meetings he’d proselyte, walking up action was, “I don’t like politicians ’’ back to you. “One thing I admired and down the streets, knocking on “I’m not a politician,” Orton re- about Ronald Reagan (though I often doors and talking to peoplc joined, “but somebody’s got to do it” disagreed with him) was that he would “Most every group, when I finished After gathering information from just flat out tell you yes or no He was with them, were warm and friendly, those in the political arena and mem- straightforward, and people love that, telling me, ‘Yes, you understand these bers of his family, Orton went back to even if they disagree with you ” problems We need people like you in Sundance to think: o Bill Orton decided to go for it, Congress.’ ” “I live in this district I know the S determined to be forthright and During the campaign Orton went people here. I know their concerns be- to work hard. After announcing his through the district more than 10 cause the same issues concern me. If I candidacy, a successful pattern soon times doing all the grass-roots cam- were to choose someone to be my rep- developed paigning that he could He knew he resentative in government, what would He called chambers of commerce, couldn’t raise much money for adver- I want? I’d want someone young county commissions, and city councils tising and marketing.