Waldholtz Won’t Run for Reelection

Freshman Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz (R-Utah) announced Tuesday that she will not run for reelection, citing the Justice Department investigation into the activities of her estranged husband and the financing of her 1994 campaign.

Waldholtz said that she “made some terrible mistakes of misplaced trust, for which I take responsibility,” but that she was “absolutely innocent of any intentional wrongdoing.”

Waldholtz’s political future began to crumble last fall when questions were raised about the source of nearly $2 million she had spent on her 1994 election. Shortly thereafter, her husband, Joseph Waldholtz, who had been her campaign treasurer, temporarily disappeared amid allegations of check-kiting.

Enid Waldholtz acknowledged that her campaign had violated campaign laws by using $1.8 million from her father to finance the race. She insisted she believed the money was her own, given by her husband who had conned her into believing he was a millionaire.

In the wake of these disclosures, Waldholtz’s support among her constituents plummeted.