Eleven applicants vie for Commissioner of Political Practices post

Eight men and three women have submitted applications to become the next commissioner of political practices.
Current commissioner Jim Murry’s last day was Wednesday.
Former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer appointed Murry to the post last year after the previous commissioner, Dave Gallik, resigned amid allegations that he used his office for private law practice work.
Murry did not seek confirmation to the post, and so the search for a new commissioner began this legislative session. A job posting went out on April 16.
The commissioner of political practices is responsible for investigating alleged violations of the election laws and, with the county attorneys, for enforcing election and campaign practice and finance laws.
According to the job posting the qualifications for the job include being a citizen of the United States and a resident of Montana and, on the date of appointment, a registered voter in Montana. 
A selection committee composed of the Republican House Speaker Mark Blasdel, Republican Senate President Jeff Essmann, Democratic House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter, and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jon Sesso, will select a pool of candidates to interview at a May 3 meeting from those who applied. The selection committee will pick at least two and not more than five finalists to forward to Gov. Steve Bullock.
Bullock must appoint a successor within 30 days of the vacancy, but he doesn’t have to appoint someone from the list of lawmakers submit to him.
The 11 candidates who have applied for the post include:

• James Ashmore, a business analyst for the state’s Information Systems Security Office at the Department of Administration in Helena.
• Jeffrey Barber, government relations director for the Nature Conservancy’s Montana chapter in Helena.
• Debra Ann Brown, of Winston, the current treasurer for the Montana Republican Party.
• Ellen Bush, of Helena, the former executive director of Court Appointed Special Advocates who most recently served as Secretary for the House Business and Labor Committee in the Legislature.
• Russell Hart, a third-year law student at the University of Montana School of Law in Missoula set to graduate in May. Hart works as a hearings officer for the Missoula Housing Authority.
• Robert Hoffman, of Butte. Hoffman served as an investigator for the commissioner of political practices from 2007-2010 under former commissioner Dennis Unsworth.
• Joel Krautter, second-year law student at the University of Montana School of Law in Missoula.
• Gary Moseman, the former managing editor of the Great Falls Tribune. Moseman retired from the Tribune last year after 30 years at the newspaper.
• Jonathan Motl, a Helena attorney with the firm Morrison, Motl and Sherwood. Motl has represented ballot issue proponents and opponents over the years and has worked on campaign finance laws.
• Daniel Ritter, a real estate agent with Trails West Real Estate in Lakeside. Ritter worked as an amendment coordinator and Sergeant at arms for the Montana Senate.
• Colleen Urquhart-Fillner, a Helena freelance writer and former policy advisor to former Republican Gov. marc Racicot.

The appointment is for the completion of the 6-year term ending December 31, 2016, and the candidate will be ineligible for reappointment. The position pays $57,699 annually.
The selection committee’s May 3 meeting in Helena is open to the public. 

Bullock to let anti-abortion bill become law to block similar measure before it hits the ballot

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock plans to let a bill become law that would require underage teenage girls to get notarized parental consent before they could get an abortion.

Pro-choice advocates are cheering the move because they say it will allow them to immediately challenge the measure in court long before an identical measure get to the ballot in 2014.

The bill, House Bill 391, by Rep. Jerry Bennett, passed the Senate on a 30-20 vote and was transmitted Bullock’s office on April 15. By law the governor has 10 days after a bill gets to his desk to sign it into law, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.  The deadline for HB391 is today.

Anti-abortion Republicans anticipated that Bullock, a pro-choice Democrat, would veto  the measure so they also passed HB521, a legislative referendum virtually identical to HB391 that would put the question to voters in November.

By allowing HB391 to become law, supporters of abortion rights say they can immediately challenge the law in court without waiting 14 months for voters to decide.

Opponents of the parental consent bill say it would put pregnant teen girls who come from dangerous or abusive homes at risk.

“Today the Governor did what is necessary so that the courts may swiftly protect the health and safety of all Montana’s families. We commend the governor for doing what is right for Montana families,” Kelsen Young, executive director for the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, in a statement.

Stacey Anderson, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Montana said the group is committed to supporting parents as the primary “sexuality educators” of children, but she said no state law should force a teen to talk to parents about private matters.

“Laws like this can’t force teens to talk to their parents, and the sad truth is some teens live in dangerous homes and can’t go to their parents,” Anderson said.

Opponents of parental consent for abortions said the bill and the referendum are unconstitutional and will likely be struck down by the courts. They point to a similar law the courts struck down in 1995 because it violates the Montana Constitution’s strong privacy rights.

Niki Zupanic, Public Policy Director for the ACLU of Montana, said Bullock letting the bill become law was the right thing to do.

“We fought this bill in the Legislature and now we will fight it in the courts,” Zupanic said.  “The Governor has a responsibility to protect the health and safety of all Montana’s families, and that’s exactly what he did today.”

Last-minute Senate GOP maneuvering threatening to derail budget deal

Everyone wants to know what’s going on, but even we the press know very little about the last-minute tactic by the Senate GOP to try to force Gov. Steve Bullock back to the negotiating table.

What we know is this:

Last night legislative leaders and the Governor’s office worked late into the night to hammer out a deal that would satisfy the Republican leadership in both houses.

The headlines this morning proclaimed that Bullock and lawmakers hashed out the plan.

The House convened, finished up their third reading business, said goodbye and adjourned Sine Die.

The Senate then went into session, worked through the first board of business, then came back and voted on a motion to suspend the rules so that the Senate could accept Senate Bill 410. They needed a 2/3 majority because the measure missed transmittal deadline.

The amendments in SB410 are the deal. The measure contains an additional $13.5 million in spending on top of the $10 billion two-year budget bill. The $13.5 million includes spending for corrections, DPHHS,  and commerce.

The Senate voted 27-23 to suspend the rules, but that doesn’t get them the 2/3 majority needed. So the deal, essentially, was not accepted by the Senate.

After that happened, the Senate recessed and Republican Senate Majority Leader Art Wittich, Sen. Jason Priest, R-Red Lodge, and Sen. Jon Sesso, D-Butte (and lawmakers, staffers, political hacks, and press) went into the Senate cloak room and had an impromptu debate about the negotiations.

Sesso told Wittich and Priest that the deal was a good faith deal, approved by the House, and that by voting against adopting SB410 they were essentially breaking the deal.

Priest and Wittich told Sesso that their “interests were not represented at the table.” However, Priest was intimately involved in the writing the SB410 amendments last night. Everyone I talk to said Priest was in House Speaker Mark Basdel’s office working closely on the negotiations.

Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, claimed that Senate President Jeff Essmann was not in the negotiations and therefore the Senate Leadership’s interests were “not represented.” But Sen. Rick Ripley, Chairman of the Senate Finance and Claims Committee disputed that, as did several other Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate who were in the Senate chambers.

Whether Essmann was involved in the negotiations or not is really not relevant, because its clear to everyone at the Capitol that Jason Priest is the Senate GOP point man on the Ledership’s negotiating team. Priest even told reporters that he’s in charge of any negotiations.

Here’s what’s happening as I write this:

The Senate still sits in recess.

Essmann is sitting in a chair at the front of the Senate. He doesn’t appear to be active in this process.

Wittich is posted outside House Speaker Blasdel’s office with a Senate leadership staffer and a GOP operative.

Blasdel, I’m told, has left the building.

Sesso in nowhere to be found.

Bullock is in a cabinet meeting, and the press is locked out.

Jim Molloy, Bullock’s senior advisor, told the press “there will be no negotiations.”

I’m told Blasdel is furious about what just went down in the Senate. My sources tell me Blasdel felt that the Senate’s actions violated the deal that was carefully crafted last night. He was especially incensed, I’m told, about the notion that Priest, Wittich and Essmann were somehow uninformed about the deal. I don’t know if that’s true, because Blasdel is nowhere to be found.

Wittich told me that Priest was involved in the negotiations, but that some changes took place after the Senate GOP leaders stepped away from the table. When SB410 came over the Senate it was not deal that was agreed to, Wittich claims.

Priest and Wittich refuse to tell the press what they want from the Governor’s office.

Bullock appears unwilling to engage the Senate GOP in negotiations, so it could come down to the Senate killing SB410 by not suspending the rules, then Bullock vetoes HB2 because the deal was broken.

If they don’t get this resolved today then the House, which already adjourned would have to come back. One House of the Legislature cannot adjourn Sine Die without the other House until after Day 88. We’re on Day 87, so if this doesn’t get resolved today, we’re back here tomorrow. And if it doesn’t get resolved then, well… then we’re back here for a special session.

Update: I just got more details on the Sine Die law:

In the Constitution it states:

Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn or recess for more than three days or to any place other than that in which the two houses are sitting.

But – Joint Rule 20-10. Consent for adjournment or recess:

As required by Article V, section 10(5), of the Montana Constitution, the consent of the other house is required for adjournment or recess for more than 3 calendar days. Consent for adjournment is obtained by having the house wishing to adjourn send a message to the other house and having the receiving house vote favorably on the request.

The receiving house shall inform the requesting house of its consent or lack of consent. Consent is not required on or after the 87th legislative day.

Since day 87 is burned – the three days runs us through day 90.

Pick up today’s Tribune for complete coverage on Montana Sen. Max Baucus’ retirement

Governor responds to House failure to bring Medicaid bill to the floor

Here are Gov. Steve Bullock’s prepared remarks regarding today’s House action sending HB623, the sole remaining Medicaid expansion bill, to the House Human Services Committee, where it is likely to die:

Statement of Governor Steve Bullock at the Press Conference on Medicaid Expansion

When you watch the news tonight or pick up a paper tomorrow, there’s a good chance that people will be talking about who won and who lost in the legislature today.  They’ll say that the Republican leadership “won” because they used a procedural trick to stop the will of the majority of legislators.  They’ll say that those who worked together to find compromise “lost.”

But no matter what anyone says, the winners aren’t a handful of folks in this building.  The real winners are the residents of New Jersey and Arizona who will now get to use Montana taxpayer dollars to improve the care of people in their states, while we get nothing.

And the losers aren’t the Democrats and Republicans who worked together and found a workable compromise. 

· The losers are the 70,000 Montanans who would have had access to quality, affordable care – but now will be forced to go without.

· The losers are the rural hospitals that are struggling to survive.

· It’s our economy that loses when we say “No” to $10 billion dollars in new economic activity.

· And it’s all of us who have health insurance who lose when we foot the bill for the uninsured who can’t afford preventative care, and instead end up in the emergency room where we foot the bill for the most expensive care possible.

I’ve traveled thousands of miles across our state talking about our health care system.  And I’ve met with leaders from hospitals, from major businesses, from Chambers of Commerce.  I’ve talked to doctors from all ends of the political spectrum.  I’ve talked to those who have insurance – who see their rates going up year after year – and I’ve talked to those who don’t have insurance – and are one illness away from medical bankruptcy.

Outside of this building, virtually everyone in our state gets it.  Creating jobs, expanding coverage and reforming the way we deliver health care is a good idea.

Ultimately, we’re all responsible to our constituents – that’s who we work for.  And these legislators who voted to send our tax dollars out of state are going to have to go home and tell their bosses that they stood in the way of lower health care costs, they stood in the way of good-paying jobs, and they stood in the way of access to affordable health care for tens of thousands of Montanans who desperately need it.

I’m disappointed that procedural tricks and threats of dark money attacks killed our legislative attempts.   To stand up to the “dark money” groups, it takes courageous statesmen and stateswomen.  There are some of them in our legislature and I thank them for their efforts.  But we need more.

Creating jobs and reforming our health care system are the right things to do and I’m going to keep fighting to do just that.  We’ll be working with Republicans and Democrats to find a way to expand coverage for more Montanans and to reform the way we deliver care.  I look forward to this happening soon.  We will get there.

Bullock signs bill decriminalizing gays and lesbians

Supporters of gay and lesbian equality packed the Capitol rotunda Thursday to celebrate Gov. Steve Bullock's signing of a measure that makes being gay legal in Montana.

The Montana Supreme Court in 1997 struck down the arcane state law that made it illegal to have gay sex, but the law remained on the books until Bullock signed Senate Bill 107.

"I'm not going to speak too long because frankly, the longer I talk the longer this unconstitutional and embarrassing law continues to stay on the books," Bullock said.

Linda Gryczan is a LGBT activist and the woman at the center of the 1995 lawsuit that lead to the Supreme Court ruling. Gryczan thanks lawmakers, lobbyists, activists and Montana citizens who have fought for more than two decades to strike the law from the books.

"Some of you interrupted bad jokes and insults, and you have done that on the floor of the House, you've done that on the floor of the Senate, you've done that in committee and you've done that in your communities," Gryczan said. "Those small actions, repeated year after year, day after day, made this change possible."

The crowd reserved their loudest cheers for Republican Reps. Duane Ankney, of Colstrip, and Steve Gibson, of East Helena. Gibson and Ankney's impassioned speeches in favor of SB107 on the House floor last week inspired the LGBT community and their supporters.

Ankney's said during his speech that his four sons "would give their last breath" to protect his daughter's right to live her life "in the way she chooses."

"To say she is any less of a person, or she is a criminal for her lifestyle, really upsets me," Ankney said in a floor speech. "This bill is an embarrassment, the law is an embarrassment on the good people of Montana. It should go away, and it should go away as quietly as it can."

The Capitol rotunda was anything but quite on Thursday as chants of "Ankney! Ankney!" filled the dome. Supporters of SB107 handed out T-shirts featuring a black and white photo of Ankney.

"I bet you've never been cheered by so many Democrats," Gryczan said.

"It's a little scary," Ankney replied.

Sen. Tom Facey, D-Missoula, SB107's sponsor, has carried similar bills in past sessions. Facey choked back tears as he thanked those who stood before him.

"I stood on the shoulders of proponents who came from across Montana to testify in committees," Facey said. "They told their stories with heart and truth and courage."

"Our predecessors stood together for equal rights. Our children cannot even grasp why equal rights would be denied," Bullock said. "For our predecessors, and our successors, now it's up to us to stand up."