Montana Senate Leader Accused of Illegally Accepting Campaign Donations

The state political practices commissioner concluded that Senate Majority Leader Art Wittich violated the law by coordinating with Western Tradition Partnership and other entities to accept illegal corporate donations in his 2010 primary election campaign.

 

Later Tuesday, Commissioner Jonathan Motl filed a civil complaint against Wittich, a Republican legislator from Bozeman, in District Court in Helena.

 

Motl asked District Judge Mike Menahan to uphold his findings and consider removing Wittich from the 2014 ballot and fine him three times the amount of the violations determined by the court. Wittich is running for the Montana House this year.

 

There’s no precedent for removing a candidate from the ballot since the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices was created in 1975.