GOP files complaint against Jergeson

The Montana Republican Party has filed complaints with the state Commission on Political Practice against former Democratic state Sen. Greg Jergeson and the Montana League of Rural Voters.

The GOP said the league has spent "multiple thousands of dollars" on behalf of Jergeson's campaign in the November 2014 election, but none of that was listed on Jergeson's campaign disclosure forms. In such cases, Republicans said, there should be no coordination between the Jergeson campaign and the league, but clearly there was. Names of contributors to the league should have been listed on Jergeson's disclosure forms, they said.

The Republican press release called it a case of "dark money corruption."

The GOP said "the League of Rural Voters clearly violated Montana law by failing to disclose ... the in-kind contributions it made" to the Jergeson campaign and two other Democratic legislative hopefuls, Margey MacDonald of Billings and Steven Muggli of Miles City.

MacDonald was narrowly re-elected, while Muggli and Jergeson narrowly lost.

Chris Shipp, executive director of the GOP, said Thursday that Republicans are asking that MacDonald be stripped of her seat as Political Practice Commissioner Jonathan Motl has done the the case of two Republican House members, Mike Miller of Helmville and Art Wittich of Bozeman. Miller agreed not to run for re-election, while Wittich's case is going to court.

Many Republicans have accused Motl of having Democratic leanings, and Shipp said the GOP will be looking to see if he treats Democratic lawmakers the sames as he did Miller and Wittich.

For his part, Jergeson said he was "kind of at a loss for words."

He said he was unaware of the complaint until informed by a reporter.

"I had heard not a word about it," he said.

He said there was absolutely no coordination between his campaign and the Montana League of Rural Voters.

"I knew they were sending out brochures," he said. "But I didn't know anything about them."

He said some supporters had urged him to file a complaint against his successful opponent, Kris Hansen, R-Havre.

He charged that she had some road signs that did not say who was paying for them and did not list her political party, both of which violate campaign rules.

"I wouldn't file a complaint," he said. "The public hates that kind of petty stuff."

In legal papers, Republicans said that the league is simply "an alter ego" of the North Plains Research Council, a Billings-based environmental group, whose policies are more in line with Jergeson's than Hansen's.

The council "created the MLRV in order to hide its direct participation in political campaigns in Montana," the GOP's legal papers said.

State Political Practices Commissioner Jonathan Motl said his office has until next week to decide whether to accept the complaints, then those accused have 15 days to respond.

Then, he said the commission will launch an investigation.

However, he said he expects a decision to be announced in the second week of May that involved issues similar to the issues in this case.

That case, Gibson v. Montana League of Rural Voters, involves an East Helena candidate who said the league violated state laws in their successful effort to defeat him.

Richard Parks, chair of the league, strongly denied there was any coordination with the Jergeson campaign.

He said he was disappointed in the election results.

"We wish Sen. Jergeson had won, Montana would have been better off for it," he said. "But that doesn't mean we coordinated our efforts with his."

He also denied coordination with the North Plains Research Council.

He said his group rented space from the council, "but we have to rent an office from somebody," he said.

He said his group also rented the council's fax.