TRIBUNE EDITORIALS

Motl handles Gianforte issue wisely

Tribune editorial board

Jonathan Motl, Montana commissioner of political practices, has been depicted by some critics as a fire-breathing partisan, but his actions in a recent decision involving GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte’s campaign don’t reflect that.

For starters, it’s clearly not kosher for candidates to send solicitations to a public employee’s governmental email address. That’s what Gianforte’s campaign did when it obtained email addresses from the Montana Association of Counties directory; some of the email addresses were government addresses.

Rather than roast the Republican candidate’s campaign, however, Motl dismissed the complaint against Gianforte, saying a prohibition against candidates contacting government employees via government email had not been clearly laid out.

Then Motl took the opportunity to say other candidates have been forewarned, and they will face penalties if they do the same thing in the future. We think it’s a fair way to have handled the situation.

Some GOP stalwarts have complained the hard-headed Motl has been unfair to Republicans, although he was reappointed to his post by the Senate last year. Plus, much of the dark money directed to campaigns in Montana in recent elections has been in Republican primaries, with conservative and more moderate Republicans facing off. That’s where much of the controversy has taken place.

We think Motl handled the Gianforte issue wisely, but it’s sure to be a bitter road ahead during the 2016 election year as candidates trade barbs and accusations.

Quotes of the Week

“It’s not unrealistic. It’s absolutely necessary.”

— Russ Doty, who is pushing a ballot initiative calling for Montana to go to 80 percent renewable energy within three decades.

“The so-called Clean Power Plan will kill Montana jobs and leads our country in the wrong direction — away from being an energy leader.”

— U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.

Number of the Week

25

— That’s the number of three-point shots hit by the Montana State University men’s basketball team in Bozeman Thursday night against Northern Arizona University, setting a school record. Bobcat freshman Tyler Hall was 8-for-11 from beyond the 3-point arc, scoring nearly one-third of the team’s 75 points it gained through treys in a crushing 101-58 victory. That’s some fancy shooting.

Cable boxes spendy

The New York Times hit the nail on the head with a recent editorial about the high price of “cable boxes” that cable, satellite and telecom companies charge customers to rent. The piece noted the rental fees bring in $20 billion a year that customers must shell out, and these rental fees have soared 185 percent since 1994, triple the inflation rate.

The Federal Communications Commission may vote Feb. 18 on whether to force the industry to develop standards so consumers could buy their own cable boxes, and save themselves cash in the long run. A number of Charter customers in Montana saw their cable bills jump this year because of cable-box rental charges. We think it would be great for consumers to have the option to buy their own equipment.