ANACONDA, Mont. (AP) – A Montana legislator can stay in office after a jury found he took illegal corporate contributions from an anti-union organization during his 2010 primary election campaign, a judge ruled Friday.
Instead, Republican Rep. Art Wittich of Bozeman was ordered to pay a $68,232 fine.
“I am not going to remove Rep. Wittich, Mr. Wittich, from his House seat,” District Judge Ray Dayton said, stressing that he is only imposing the will of the Legislature through its laws and that he must be cautious with any discretion he has in interpreting the statute.
Wittich has only about six months left in his two-year term after losing his re-election bid in the primary this month. He has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, even after the jury’s April ruling.
Wittich lost to challenger Bruce Grubbs after jurors found the lawmaker took $19,599 in illegal and unreported in-kind contributions from the National Right to Work Committee and its affiliates. The contributions included campaign consulting, direct mail, voter data, opposition research and website design, along with a coordinated campaign of attack mailers against his primary opponent.
Montana law prohibits candidates from accepting contributions from corporations, and candidates must report all in-kind contributions they receive.
Wittich said he paid for and reported the services he received. Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, who brought the civil case against Wittich, was on a political witch hunt against conservative legislative candidates, Wittich said.
Motl sought Wittich’s removal from office and asked the judge to fine him $144,900.
A Montana judge hasn’t removed an elected official from office in 76 years. In 1940, a Forsyth judge ousted Cascade County Sheriff Guy Palagi for violating the state’s Corrupt Practices Act by giving beer and tobacco to voters for their support in his 1938 re-election bid.
Wittich’s attorneys argued Wittich was running for a state Senate seat in 2010, when the violations happened, but he now holds a different House seat. Wittich can’t be removed from a seat that was not the subject of the campaign finance investigation, his lawyers said.
Motl’s attorneys argued the law was clear and required Wittich’s removal after a jury found he broke the state’s campaign finance rules.
Wittich served one term in the Senate seat he won in the 2010 election where he was found to have taken illegal contributions. He was the Senate majority leader in 2013 and was elected in 2014 to the state House seat he now holds.
Wittich is one of nine Republican candidates Motl has brought court actions against for coordinating with the National Right to Work Committee. His is the only one who has gone to trial.
State judges ruled against two other Republican candidates last year when they did not show up to defend themselves. Two others have settled out of court.
A separate civil case filed by Motl’s office is pending against Virginia-based Right to Work and its affiliated nonprofit corporations.