HELENA – A Republican Senate leader claims in recently filed court documents that Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, the commissioner of political practices and two others conspired to remove him from office by accusing him of breaking campaign laws.
Commissioner Jonathan Motl has filed a civil action against Senate Majority Leader Art Wittich that says Wittich coordinated with and took illegal corporate contributions from the conservative group Western Tradition Partnership in the 2010 election campaign.
If a judge upholds Motl’s findings, Wittich of Bozeman could be removed from office and struck from the 2014 ballot.
Wittich filed a counterclaim in state court Thursday that says Motl’s goal since being appointed by Bullock, a Democrat, last year has been to remove Wittich from office. Wittich said he doesn’t have enough information to make a determination on Motl’s findings, so he denies them.
He claimed Bullock, Motl, Motl’s predecessor Jim Murry, state Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, and 20 unnamed people engaged in official misconduct by conspiring to remove him from office.
“Two or more of the third-party defendants communicated with one another and thereafter had a meeting of the minds on their objective and/or course of action to bring faulty accusations and legal charges against Wittich,” the document said.
Motl told Lee Newspapers of Montana that he was disappointed to see Wittich raising issues and defenses that don’t relate to the case.
Kevin O’Brien, Bullock’s deputy chief of staff, mocked Wittich’s claims.
“Once Sen. Wittich gets to the bottom of this, I hope he can turn his attention to important things, like where Elvis is hiding and what really happened at Roswell,” O’Brien said in a text message Saturday in response to a query by The Associated Press.
Wittich and state Rep. Mike Miller of Helmville are among nine Republican candidates in the 2010 elections that Motl says coordinated and took in-kind contributions from Western Tradition Partnership.
Motl has filed civil actions against the nine in state court, asking judges to confirm his findings and impose penalties.
Miller also has denied any wrongdoing and filed a counterclaim that makes a constitutional challenge to the state’s ban on corporate donations.
The law says a corporation may not make a contribution or expenditure that supports or opposes a candidate or political party.
A judge ruled last year that Western Tradition Partnership acted as a political committee — rather than the educational group it claimed to be — and must disclose the spending and donors it had been keeping secret.