BUTTE, Mont. — In developing election news in Butte, a candidate for city-county sheriff has been found to be in “serious violation” of state campaign finance laws.
In a partial ruling handed down on Wednesday, Chris Gallus, Commissioner of Political Practices for the state of Montana, found that candidate Mike Gage received illegal campaign contributions from Kane Fischer of Immanuel Security LLC.
The maximum amount an LLC can give a candidate is $450 per election, if documented properly. However, Gallus writes that the owners of Immanuel Security paid for over $8,000 in radio advertising that wasn’t properly disclosed, and that they coordinated with Gage’s campaign.
Gallus describes the ad in his findings of fact as being “just under 60 seconds in length,” with it opening with Gage speaking in support of his candidacy, and Fischer then stating Immanuel Security supports him.
The ads ended by saying they were paid for by “Immanuel Security of Butte,” but did not disclose the name or address of a treasurer, as is required by law.
Gallus writes that Fischer should have created an independent political committee for ad expenditures, and that reports should have been filed within days of the ads being placed. Gallus states that after being notified of potential wrongdoing, Immanuel Security created an entity called “Friends of Gage” on Sept. 12, which they labeled as an incidental political committee despite it not meeting those requirements.
Gage also filed four monthly campaign finance reports after the required deadline. His March filing was 13 days late, his April and May filings were both nine days late, and his June filing was four days late.
NBC Montana spoke with Gallus briefly by phone on Thursday afternoon, who stated that violations like these do occur periodically, especially on the local level. Although, he says ordinary people understand there are reporting requirements as the public has a right to transparency. He says it is understandable things can be missed by candidates during a campaign but he will still enforce the law.
The initial complaint was filed by incumbent sheriff Ed Lester on Sept. 6, who says when he heard the ads on the radio earlier this year, he realized something may be off.
“I know for a fact that those things are pretty pricey, you have to pay for them. And when you take in money, or you expend money as a campaign, you have to report those expenses. The money coming in has to be reported as much as the money going out. Mr. Gage’s campaign wasn’t reporting any money being expended on radio advertising or any money coming in from Immanuel Security,” said Lester on Thursday.
NBC Montana also spoke with Gage, who says he is new to politics and was approached by Immanuel Security officials to participate in the ads, never thinking it could be a violation of the law.
“This is something that none of us have ever done before. It wasn’t until March that we decided to (run). We’re doing the best that we can and we’ll accept whatever the commissioner’s office says. It’s something that we made a mistake on, and we’ll accept whatever needs to be done to correct the mistake,” said Gage.
“It’s pretty clear. The candidate is responsible to comply with all campaign finance laws. That’s clear and there’s no debating that. So, whether you’re new at this or have been at it for a long time, you still have to comply with the law,” said Lester.
“In the past, I’ve always run against officers who were good officers and good people, and this issue never came up. I’ve never been involved in filing a campaign finance violation in the past. So I’m not sure what it means for the race, I think it reflects on the character of my opponent,” Lester added.
Gage says his filings have been late because they are difficult to compile.
“I didn’t understand exactly what I was doing on them. So yeah, that’s true. They were a few days late,” said Gage.
Lester says he is skeptical of that reasoning, and although campaign finance reports can be a difficult thing to figure out, using that reasoning to miss deadlines is not an acceptable excuse.
“If you don’t understand what needs to be done, you can always call the commissioner’s office and find out how to proceed,” said Lester. I don’t think it’s easy, but it’s not overly difficult to the point where you should fail to report thousands of dollars in advertisements. The campaign finance deadlines are pretty clear. Everything is due by the 20th of the month. And when you miss four straight deadlines, it tells me you’re not real interested in complying.”
Gage tells NBC Montana he reached out to Gallus on Thursday morning to better understand the ruling.
“It probably would have been best if we contacted his office first (before running the ads) just to see if it was something we did need to list or something that we didn’t need to list, going forward. He kind of told me, next time this happens, say thank you but no thanks. So that’s how we’ll do it going forward, just contact the commissioner’s office first if we have a question instead of just thinking we know what the answer is,” said Gage.
Gallus notes in his ruling that “Gage, at the very least, acted negligently” and that his office reserves the right to continue investigating these matters, and they have also been referred to the Butte-Silver Bow county attorney for potential civil action.
Gallus said there will not be any criminal charges, as although not properly attributing an ad could be a misdemeanor, that issue was rectified. He says civil consequences will likely be a fine totaling up to three times the amount of the contribution, as that is what the law calls for if that amount exceeds $500.
Gage had told Gallus that he believed the matter had been resolved and the case had been dropped, as he never heard back after attorneys representing Immanuel Security sent an apology letter to Gallus.
In regards to that claims, Gallus stated “nothing could be further from the truth.”
