Republican Chairman Lobbys Against Political Practices Commissioner

Montana Republican Party Chairman Will Deschamps was lobbying against current Political Practices Commissioner Jonathan Motl yesterday, April 21, after Motl’s confirmation was tabled on Monday. Deschamps accused Motl of expanding the powers of his office and selectively chosing the cases he pursues.

"First, the Republican party filed a complaint against a state democrat and [Motl] chose it, upon himself, to expand that to start covering several other people that no complaints had ever been filed upon, completely outside of his purview in our opinion," Deschamps said. "Number two, a couple of years ago the state party filed a complaint with the commissioner of political Practices against our current governor [Steve Bullock] and that has never been acted on, it's been at least two years. The third item is that we just feel he's been heavy handed, and we don't think he's been even-handed against both parties."

The political Practices Commissioner is nominated by the Governor and then confirmed by the Legislature. Deschamps says it’s hard for him to imagine a worse nominee than Motl.

"It's up to the governor to pick who he wants as a replacement should Motl not get confirmed," Deschapms said. "Our fear is that Motl might remain. I believe that whoever the governor chooses to appoint if [Motl] is not confirmed, can't be any worse, and may be better."

Deschamps did give credit to Motl for decreasing the backlog of old cases at the office of political practices. Motl was appointed as interim political Practices Commissioner in May of 2013 and has held the position without a confirmation because the appointment came after the 2013 legislative session had ended.