Tagged: Office of Political Practices

Posted: November 1, 2012 at 12:45 pm

Bizarre Testimony from Gallik’s Accuser; bad times for GOP in court

If you think the black helicopter crowd lives only in rural Montana, think again.

Recall that when Dave Gallik was forced out as Commissioner of Political Practices last year, there was a feeling among readers at the time that something didn’t smell quite right.  His four employees had rummaged through desk and photocopied his notes, kept tabs on his comings and goings, and sent it all to reporters.  They even called the police one time without any legitimate explanation.  There was a feeling among many observers (and many commenters here) that something smelled fishy, especially when the now-infamous photo appeared on the front of the IR, the four women posing for the photographer, seeming to bask in the glow of their 15 minutes of sunlight.

Gallik has always maintained that he was framed by four people who were out to get him because he was a tough boss who forced them to change their ways, and they were resistant.

Well, yesterday Gallik got his day in court.   And one of his chief accusers, Julie Steab, one of the employees who made some of the strongest accusations against Gallik in the press, was called to the stand.

To the shock of observers in court and the embarrassment of the attorney bringing the case against Gallik, Ms. Steab testified that she was the target of a surveillance operation, that “an unknown person or persons” were “following her” around, day and night, in the aftermath of Gallik’s resignation.  She also testified that the other three women in the office were similarly tailed. But Mary Baker, one of the other employees, took the stand after Steab and stated that she had never been followed nor did she know of any case where any of the four employees were followed.

I’d say Steab’s bizarre testimony is grounds for the press and public to reconsider Gallik’s tenure and the events surrounding his departure.  In my opinion, he was brought down by at least one woman whose credibility has been shattered, whose testimony yesterday clearly suggests to me some type of paranoia or tendency toward fantasy.

The attorney bringing the case was none other than the Tea Partier Art Wittich, suing Gallik on behalf of the Montana Policy Institute, the right-wing think tank.  Wittich, like most GOP attorneys in Montana, spends his days suing the Governor, Steve Bullock, Commissioners past and present, and Democrats generally. Clearly his star witness, Steab, did not deliver, destroyed her own credibility, and caused Wittich some embarrassment.  Poor guy.  It’s kind of like calling a witness to the stand, who upon cross examination confesses to having been abducted by aliens, or having seen Elvis still alive in Hawaii.

Which leads me to a humorous final point, a general pattern of events the last few weeks:

It’s been a dry spell for GOP attorneys.  A few weeks back, Rick Hill hired Bozeman Tea Party hot-head Monforton to give him legal advice. It it was Monforton’s idea to take the $500,000 donation, it was perhaps the worst legal advice in Montana political history, probably destroying Hill’s campaign.  Then another of Hill’s lawyers, Cory Swanson, a young corporate lobbyist and lawyer who makes a living suing the Schweitzer administration, got his head handed to him in district court by three top-rank democratic lawyers, the judge barring Hill from spending the illegal $500k.  Jim Brown, another conservative attorney who represents right-wing American Tradition Partnership, was caught on camera with a mouthful of marbles when presented clear evidence that his client broke the law by coordinating with GOP candidates; he had no response to the reporter, and turned red in the face.   Brown had to then contend with a crowd of protesters outside his office the day after the PBS story aired (though he was a good sport about it, fielding questions from members of the hostile crowd).  Now Wittich puts his star witness on the stand to make his case, and she says that big brother is watching her day and night. Bwahahahaaa!

Posted: March 8, 2012 at 7:06 am

DOH! Meet the Montana TEA Party’s Keystone Kops

Rep. Tom Burnett (R-Bozeman)

The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices rejected a complaint by TEA Party Republicans this week. They claimed that their voting records on public spending and personal largesse were misrepresented by local Democrats.

The TEA Party legislature tried to shut down the state by blocking education and jobs–claiming a fake budget crisis, but the facts shows Tea Party lawmakers grabbing from the government trough.

Rep. Tom Burnett, of Bozeman, and Rep. Cleve Loney, of Great Falls, had filed a complaint against a flyer that exposed the big bump in taxpayer-funded personal compensation they gave themselves–while cutting education, jobs, and food for Montana families.   In an attempt to hide their hypocrisy from their base of low information voters, Burnett and Loney tried to claim that the campaign materials were untrue.

Cyndi Baker (left) and Rep. Cleve Loney R-Great Falls (right)
Rep. Cleve Loney (R-Great Falls) with megaphone.

Here’s where the story goes Keystone Kops.  It’s a classic case of TEA Party dysfunction and imbecility.  The law on which Burnett and Loney had tried to base their complaint–a law against misrepresenting voting records–has already been struck down in a case brought by the Tea Party-aligned Western Tradition Partnership, the OPP ruling shows.

Yeah, that’s the same Western Tradition Partnership that bought the election for idiots like Burnett and Loney. So even if the flyer was wrong (it isn’t), the very group that elected the TEA Partiers got a judge to block the law the OPP would have needed to correct the record.

Posted: January 27, 2012 at 9:25 pm

Dumb and Dumber

If you want to know why the Montana Republican Empire has been on a sure and steady decline in the last several years, all you need to do is see a few of the GOP’s leading legislators in action, trying to hatch a plot against Schweitzer.  For that, read Intelligent Discontent on the Associated Press piece about a peach of an e-mail that made the rounds this week, courtesy of GOP Senators Ed Buttrey and Jim Peterson.

Posted: January 19, 2012 at 9:06 pm

Big News at OPP

A big brouhaha erupted this weekend at the Office of Political Practices.

On Sunday, John Adams of the Great Falls Tribune broke the story that four workers at that office, permanent state employees, went to Adams and told him that Gallik was committing ethical violations because he was mixing his public duties with with his private law job.

According to the Adams story and subsequent reports, the four women, pictured below, alleged that Gallik sent e-mails on the state system in which he conducted his private legal business affairs, which is not permitted.  The four clerical employees also alleged that Gallik had not properly filled out his time sheet, and was crediting himself for more hours than he had actually worked. Gallik did send emails to his law office, the Tribune article revealed, and he admitted to having filled out his time sheet improperly but said it was done under a misunderstanding of the rules of state compensation. He said he subsequently corrected the error after receiving guidance from these women and from the governor’s chief advisor.

There was a definite buzz going around the web after this story appeared. Some said it was Gallik’s folly to try to juggle these two careers.  Some bloggers sensed a fishy smell surrounding the entire situation.  Highly discussed on several blogs were various suggested motives of the employees to have gone through Gallik’s office and take photos of the content of his desk as they did.

Also a big topic of discussion was the photo of the four women, glaring out at readers in a marinade of rage, with a dash satisfaction, several of their faces exhibiting a barely detectable yet unmistakable smirk. Predictably, some sexist comments made their way around the blogs. Here we stick to business and facts.

Tipsters to this blog, and commenters elsewhere, have suggested that these women had it in for Gallik.  That’s certainly possible.

Even though Gallik had clearly done some nos-nos, it’s hard to imagine that an entire workforce would try to bring him down in such a methodically lethal way, essentially declaring him a criminal, for some modest infractions that seem to stem more from Gallik’s ignorance of the rules than anything else. Plus, there are probably many state workers who make occasional use of state computers to send personal e-mails. Whether Gallik’s use was pervasive enough to require a termination is an interesting question.

Also, these women could not possibly know how much time, outside of the office, Mr. Gallik put toward his government work.  Perhaps Gallik worked nights at home. Gallik had evidently kept up with all of his work and issued decisions at a fast pace, and without incurring the expense of having to hire the outside attorneys (because he is one himself) that previous commissioners used, and says he thus saved the state some money.

Gallik also says he had butted heads with these staffers, in his attempt to convert the office of political practices–a notorious bog of bureaucracy, inefficiency and futility–from a paper system to an paperless one, an online digital filing system for candidates, lobbyists and the like.  In essence, Gallik seems to be saying that these gals were were resisting a modernization of an operation that they have overseen for many years, and wanted him gone.

There are two other items that should raise a flag, which emerged in Mike Dennison’s account of the matter.  First, after the story broke, Gallik was in the Political Practices office and stepped out for a bit.  During that time, the women decided to put in a call to the police.  Why?  They say that they thought he’d be talking to the press and thus the police should be alerted “in case he got upset.”  They admitted, however, that they didn’t think he could ever present any sort of threat. I’d say the call to the cops was frivolous, and maybe worse.

Second, the attorney retained by these gals is a big-time Schweitzer opponent, Tom Budewitz, who has clashed publicly with the Governor.

At any rate, after the phone call to the police, Gallik called it quits, announcing that he believed these women were out to ruin him and that he could not afford the damage they were seeking to do to him.   Clearly, reading between the lines, these women were probably not enjoying having to report to him, for whatever reason.

No doubt more exciting information will be dribbling out, as it always does.  But the facts are that Gallik is out, but the staffers will continue on as part of the permanent government.  A new commissioner will eventually arrive, and will have the pleasure of dealing with these cheery-looking folk.