Have you ever been told: “Don’t rassle with pigs – you’ll only get dirty and the pigs love it.” Um, this time I didn’t just rassle, but went swimming – and needed a shower afterwards.
The Montana Commission of Political Practices (CPP) has been in the news lately. There was major bickering between Commissioner Dave Gallik and his vast staff of four. Staff claimed Gallik was moonlighting as a lawyer on state time, while he claimed they weren’t doing their jobs, either.
Gallik, a termed-out Democratic legislator from Helena, appointed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer after the state Senate rejected his first choice, resigned. I wrote a column about the unfolding fiasco, because I was, and am, amazed how an office tasked with a simple yet vital function for Montana voters can be so dysfunctional.
For example, CPP enforces ethics regulations. But “enforcement” is slow, ineffectual, and inefficient – ever been gummed by a toothless Chihuahua?
Today 39 ethics complaints (some frankly trivial) are stacked up in the hopper – 29 from BEFORE the 2010 election. No elected official or illegal PACster has ever lost their office or job, much less gone to Deer Lodge. The latest ruling hit Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar with $5,750 in fines. What really hurt was the ridiculous $15,000 assessment for hearing and court costs – over 44 months!?
CPP is also tasked with making campaign donation records public. Until maybe 2002, the protocol was to request and pay for hard copies – a Stone Age joke. Then CPP went to scanning hard copies into PDF files – up to the “Adobe Age!”
With the 2012 election shaping up to be a doozy, THIS is the year for Web-based filing for candidates, PACs and lobbyists in a searchable form, right? Don’t we voters deserve to learn BEFORE the election that those “Citizens for Puppy Kisses” TV ads were bankrolled by Doctor Evil and produced by Mini-Me?
That was the goal – “under way” in late 2006; “update and enhance the online reporting and search” by “May 2010” in 2008; “update and enhance” blah blah by “May 2012” in August 2010. What next? Update and enhance by 2014? Pathetic.
Might the governor pick a new commissioner who would take the job seriously, making the office useful for Montanans THIS election?
Shortly after, the first applications came in – from folks who clearly didn’t understand the office’s intended functions and its failures – I applied, then pulled my column. Snowflake’s chance, but sometimes …
During my brilliant campaign, I learned a lot. For instance, I found a report from a state PAC I’d heard of. Its biggest donor (by several thousand dollars) was completely mis-identified, while most of the other donors were “knowns” to me. Then I found a Federal PAC: Same name, same treasurer, same problem – the biggest donor (again by thousands) identified wrong.
Coincidence? Ineptitude? Stealth? Maybe, but wrong for sure. Guess what? Mister Treasurer then applied for the job!
Another applicant is a jilted Billings candidate with four live ethics complaints against four PACs that slimily (but correctly) exposed her as a Republican In Name Only. Can you say V for Vendetta?
Then there was the Great Falls applicant, who’d run as a Democrat for Cascade County commissioner in 2010. But according to a “spilled” email to Majority Leader Jim Peterson (R, on the recommendation panel) from Great Falls Sen. Ed Buttrey (R), he was “really a Republican in Democrat’s clothing.” So at least two Montana politicians see the CPP ethics enforcement system as something to be gamed, eh?
As it was, the recommendation panel took no chances. The Billings professor and computer geek I felt should win, didn’t. None of the four finalists (including the Great Falls DINO and three insiders) gave any indication they would be more than chair-warmers.
The “winner,” James Murry, ran Montana AFL-CIO from 1968 to 1991. He’s 77, an age when most folks are done kicking butt and taking names.
It’s Schweitzer’s prerogative to gift an old warrior with a sinecure. But in the end, the system failed to pick the person the job needed. Again.
I need another shower. At least the pigs are still happy.