Montana Political Practices Commissioner Rules Against Sheriff Candidate T.J. McDermott and Law Firm, Josh Clark Discusses Findings

Montana Political Practices Commissioner Jonathan Motl has reached a decision in the complaints filed against Missoula County Sheriff Candidate T.J. McDermott by write-in candidate Josh Clark. The findings went out to the candidates today and Clark was satisfied with the decision.

"It listed eight sufficiency findings of violations of campaign practice law," said Clark. "Five were against Datsopoulos McDonald and Lind, and three were specifically against T.J. McDermott. I think it's great. I know people were skeptical of my filing the complaint, but this is for the people of Missoula and the people of Montana."

Clark says that this news will definitely be spread by his write-in campaign as a voting issue.

"This is the Sheriff of Missoula County," Clark said. "You don't want somebody that's comfortable bending rules, breaking rules, and breaking the law as long as it benefits him in that office. You want somebody that will stand up to the bullies in society, that will stand up to the politicians, and stand up to political corruption."

The decision still has thirty days before it is either ruled on in court or goes to mediation, but commissioner Motl has already requested a barrier be put up between the law firm Datsopoulos, Macdonald and Lind and T.J. McDermott.

"The commissioner actually states in the Datsopoulos side of this, in a similar state on the McDermott side, that in a settlement, he would want to see an establishment of a revolving door type period of time where Datsopoulous, MacDonald, and Lind lawyers will not interact with the sheriff's office, should candidate McDermott be elected sheriff," Clark said.

The commissioner’s three findings against McDermott are “That he accepted illegal corporate contributions, that he failed to report and disclose in kind contributions from the corporation, and that he failed to report expenses in detail.”