Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/author/john-adams/)
Five Montana Democrats are running in June 5 primary election for a chance to unseat first-term incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte in the Nov. 6 general election. The Montana Free Press surveyed the five candidates to see where they stand on 10 key issues. The candidates were asked to respond in 50 words or fewer to each question. Below are their responses, edited only for length and style. Continue Reading →
HELENA — Allegations that a high-profile state-appointed attorney broke some of the same campaign practices laws he was hired to prosecute have been dropped. Deputy Commissioner of Political Practices Kirsten Madsen, in a 19-page order issued Friday, dismissed a complaint filed late last year against Billings attorney Gene Jarussi by Republican political consultant Jake Eaton. (more…) Continue Reading →
HELENA – A dark-money political organization that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars during the 2012 election to support conservative candidates for office has settled a lawsuit accusing it of violating Montana’s campaign finance laws. (more…) Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: This is the first offering, from the Montana Free Press, of what will likely be many reports fact-checking the claims and statements of candidates, campaigns and third-party political groups in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. (more…) Continue Reading →
HELENA — Campaign finance watchdogs were waiting on pins and needles this week in anticipation of the final text of a massive bill to fund the federal government. That’s because earlier drafts of House and Senate appropriations bills contained a series of so-called “poison pill” riders that critics said would have reshaped campaign finance laws. (more…) Continue Reading →
HELENA — A group at the center of one of the biggest elections scandals in modern Montana history is actively engaged in the 2018 election, while hiding its activities and spending, according to a complaint filed with state elections regulators. (more…) Continue Reading →
A Yellowstone County man who claims a judge illegally ordered his arrest is now suing that judge, and the officer who arrested him, in federal court. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Billings, Miguel Angel Reynaga Hernandez claims that former Yellowstone County Justice of the Peace Pedro Hernandez violated his civil rights when he ordered sheriff’s deputy Derrek Skinner to arrest him, despite the fact that Reynaga had not committed a crime. (more…) Continue Reading →
The federal judge who ordered that the results of a lengthy misconduct investigation into a former Montana chief judge be sealed resigned Monday amid allegations of sexual misconduct. (more…) Continue Reading →
For the better part of the past decade, Montana Republicans have enjoyed comfortable majorities in the state Legislature. Despite those majorities (or maybe because of them), GOP caucuses in the House and Senate have spent much of the past 10 years engaged in a bitter, and oftentimes very public, intra-party feud. (more…) Continue Reading →
Gene Jarussi, a Billings lawyer and the state special attorney general in charge of litigating a series of lawsuits against political candidates for illegal campaign activities, is now himself facing allegations of political misconduct. (more…) Continue Reading →
