Thursday, January 19, 2017

Bill targets governor using state plane for campaign events

HELENA — A Republican legislator wants to clip the wings of Gov. Steve Bullock and any future governors to stop them from using the state airplane to combine campaign stops with official state business.

Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Missoula, this week introduced House Bill 255, which revived an issue Republicans raised against the Democratic governor in his re-election campaign last year. The bill will be heard Jan. 25 by the House State Administration Committee.

Last year, Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, Tschida and some other GOP legislators accused Bullock of misusing the state airplane by attending fundraising events in towns where he flew for state business.

Bullock said then he followed the same rules as his predecessors, using the state airplane for official business and also sometimes having campaign events in the same cities. Bullock wound up reimbursing the state about $3,800 to cover extra time the state pilot spent on the job because of the governor’s appearance at later separate campaign fundraisers.

“Essentially, we’ve been asking Governor Bullock to use the plane for the purposes I believe the citizens of Montana expect it to be used for and that’s for the business of the state,” Tschida said in an interview. “And when you start to water down that with trips that include dual purpose, and it’s not clear whether or not the majority of the use is for state business or campaign business or personal business, it starts to get cloudy.”

He cited a trip when Bullock took the state plane to Billings last year and made peanut butter sandwiches for children for 15 minutes on state business and then went to a two-hour campaign fundraiser.

“Just based surely on time, the priority seems to be the fundraiser, but obviously, there is some state business in there,” Tschida said. “Why not just limit trips to state business only and not do campaign stuff at all? Charter a plane or drive or do whatever but keep them separate so there isn’t any question or concern that you’re doing something that might appear to be inappropriate.”

In response, Bullock’s spokeswoman Ronja Abel said, “The governor thinks it’s unfortunate that Republican leaders are putting politics ahead of Montana jobs and the economy. They should be focusing their efforts on the infrastructure bill, balancing a budget and offering legislation on jobs, not distractions like this.”
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The bill would forbid a governor from using the state airplane for any campaigning for state or federal office while traveling on state business within 60 days of a primary and a general election.

At other times, the governor would have to pay the full cost of chartering an airplane if he uses the state airplane to travel to any campaigning for a state or a federal office while he’s on state business. Tschida estimated the cost of a charter plane at $1,100 an hour.

It would require additional reporting of each trip in the state plane, including the names and addresses of those riding in the plane, the purpose of each stop and the names and addresses of every attendee of any meeting attended by the governor during the trip if the meeting was not open to the public and the news media.

Source:   http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com

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