SALT LAKE CITY — Republican state Rep. Greg Hughes was cleared Friday by the House Ethics Committee of all misconduct allegations made against him by three Democratic legislators in a complaint he contended was politically motivated.

Hughes was accused in a complaint of six ethical violations, including the contention that he offered as much as $50,000 in campaign money to former Republican Rep. M. Susan Lawrence if she would change her vote on a controversial school voucher bill in 2007.

Hughes, of Draper, denied any wrongdoing and contended the complaint was an attack late in the campaign season.

“It’s the dirtiest kind of campaigning,” he said, briefly addressing reporters at the Capitol after the ruling. “I want to spend some time with my family and get back to my district and start campaigning.”

He took no questions.

Neither Hughes nor his lawyer immediately returned calls from The Associated Press.

Hughes is being challenged by Democrat Lisa M. Johnson in the Nov. 4 general election.

The House Ethics Committee, composed of four Republicans and four Democrats, subpoenaed dozens of witnesses and took testimony in closed sessions for seven days. On Friday, the committee voted to drop the six charges: attempted bribery of Lawrence; abuse of office and the misuse of the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst; and four counts of attempted extortion.

In a letter to the House, the committee said, “We do find that some of Representative Hughes’s conduct as presented to us during this inquiry was unbecoming a member of the Utah House of Representatives.”

The committee asked Hughes to change his behavior and apologize to the appropriate people.

Rep. Phil Riesen of Holladay, one of the Democrats who filed the complaint against Hughes, called the committee’s findings and hearings process “absurd.” Because the public was shut out of the hearings, it’s not clear which questions about the allegations were asked and which ones were not, he said.

“It’s an absolutely absurd process that has broken down our system of state government,” he said.

The decision ended the first House ethics hearing in more than a decade.

Reached at her Salt Lake City home Friday, Lawrence said her purpose in raising the complaint was to encourage legislative ethics reform and that she stands by the committee’s decision.

“I certainly know that I felt that what he did was not appropriate, but I’m glad this is over now,” she said. “If a representative like Greg Hughes can be brought up on these kinds of allegations, obviously there’s some kind of ambiguity about what is ethical, what is not and what our rules are. I hope it will still lead to ethics reform.”

The Ethics Committee, in its letter to the House, also wrote, “We have come to the conclusion that our current Code of Official Conduct is not specific enough to provide adequate guidelines to look to when examining legislative behavior and are not direct enough to give fair notice of whether certain behavior is ethical or not.”

The committee recommends the Legislature review the rules for clarity and direction and that the House begin ethics training for its members.

The Oct. 1 complaint against Hughes was filed by Riesen and Democratic Reps. Roz McGee of Salt Lake City and Neil Hansen of Ogden.

Hughes and two other Republicans filed a counter-complaint against Riesen for showing the complaint against Hughes to reporters before it was filed.

Riesen has acknowledged giving the complaint to reporters and contends it is his duty to alert the public if unethical behavior is occurring.

The committee chairman, Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, said Friday he and other committee members would not answer questions about the hearings because Hughes’ complaint against Riesen is pending.

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