Miller wants balanced campaign ethics investigations
Recently I’ve been a little quieter than normal, mostly because of the hunting accident I had last fall, but I’m doing well and there are some issues that I would like to share with you.
As we all know, the Commissioners of Political Practices in recent years have been blatantly partisan because of the selection and direction of former Gov. Brian Schweitzer. The former governor repeatedly appointed obvious political hacks in order to wipe clean allegations against himself and have a hatchet person to bring down the ax on candidates of his and his Party’s choice.
Hopefully, Democrats along with Gov. Steve Bullock will understand that common sense needs to be established in the selection of this office. They need to understand that there will be a Republican governor sometime in the future and what goes around, comes around.
Senate Bill 387, sponsored by Sen. Debby Barrett, R-Dillon, and supported by Senate leadership, would be very helpful in limiting partisan abuse of the office. Please contact your legislator and ask them to support this bill. While it is not exactly what I would prefer, it is a huge step in the right direction.
In order to have just and fair political campaign oversight several things need to be established.
1) People filing a complaint should have “standing.” In all other areas of civil justice, a person bringing action against another must have been personally harmed. People should not be able to just file complaint after complaint using taxpayer money just for the purpose of bringing harm to candidates. (Currently there are individuals who have literally been financially and emotionally broken because one angry individual repeatedly files ethic complaint after ethic complaint, forcing the candidate to defend themselves with an attorney. So please ask the committee to amend-in a “standing” requirement for Title 2 complaints as it exists in Title 35.
2) Complaints filed and investigated should be resolved in the same order that they are received. The Office of Political Practices has complaints that for years are unresolved and yet others are rushed through so that a decision is made during the campaign, thereby affecting the election results. (In my case the Commissioner rushed for a “finding of facts” so that it could be released to the press just days before the election, while similar complaints remain unresolved. Perhaps if they had taken more time and care in their research, they would have not made so many egregious errors.)
3) Candidates accused of wrongdoing should have the opportunity to respond to allegations while facing their accuser and so called “findings of facts” before it is released to the press and a false, damaging story is written. (In my case the Commissioner accused me of wrongdoing three days before Election Day, it was full of erroneous statements that were easily proven in my favor from the information on CoPP’s own Web site, but when they amended their own finding of facts, the damage to my reputation was already done. They didn’t even bother to apologize.)
Please contact the your legislator and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Ken Miller is a former Montana state senator, former chairman of the Montana Republican Party and a Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2012.