Campaign complaint against Gianforte dismissed

HELENA — The state commissioner of political practices has dismissed a complaint against Republican GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte alleging he violated campaign practice laws when he mailed campaign documents to public employees using their government mailing addresses.

However, Commissioner Jonathan Motl ordered Gianforte to “purge all public employee place-of-work addresses” from his campaign mailing lists.

And all other candidates are to not use public employee work addresses or face disciplinary action.

He cited Montana law that protects public employees from being subjected to campaign activity while at work.

The complaint was filed Jan. 25 by Gerald Thomas, the coroner for Anaconda-Deer Lodge County. He said he received an email from Gianforte seeking his support.

Commissioner Jonathan Motl excused the complaint Tuesday “by application of principal of excusable neglect.”

“There was no use of public resources or public time because the campaign email was created and mailed by the Gianforte campaign using nongovernmental campaign funds,” he wrote.

Gianforte’s campaign staff said the email address was from the Montana Association of Counties directory and imported into a campaign email database and not sent from a government email address. They also stated Gianforte’s campaign paid for all costs.

Motl said if there is such use in the future it will be a campaign practice violation.

“Stated in plain English, Montana law does not allow political campaigns the use of workplace addresses of public employees for political purposes,” he said.