by Ken Toole | Jan 28, 2024 | Elections, Energy/Utilities
Legislative Auditors have once again examined the Public Service Commission and, once again, they don’t like what they see. Specifically, the audit found that only 23% of employees at the PSC believed that commissioners behaved with high ethical standards. The auditors found that the shenanigans of various commissioners and consistent promotion of fossil fuels over the last few years have undermined public trust in PSC decision making. Here’s a brief recap of some of the actions of commissioners which led to another bad audit report.
- Commissioner Randy Pinocci was arrested for witness tampering in a private matter. He is currently awaiting trial.
- Commissioners Randy Pinocci and Tony O’Donnell issued a press release saying that there was a frighteningly real possibility of black outs in eastern Montana and called on the legislature to save the coal plants in southeastern Montana. Montana Dakota Utilities said the release was “completely unfounded.”
- Commissioner Jennifer Fielder threatened medical providers in Helena with “political consequences” for refusing to administer a nonclinical remedy for COVID-19.
- Commissioner Randy Pinocci publicly suggested that the City of Missoula be targeted for black outs because he said they do not support coal development.
- Commissioners routinely advocate for coal power even though they are responsible to objectively examine various resources and mechanisms for meeting power needs.
Commission Chairman, James Brown (who just announced he is running for State Auditor https://wtf406.com/2024/01/public-service-commission-chairman-running-for-state-auditor/ ) objected to much of the audit report saying that some steps have been taken to address some of the issues. But clearly many issues remain unresolved.
by Ken Toole | Jan 23, 2024 | Elections
Responding to Tim Sheehy’s Editorial Rhetoric
U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy has a semi-autobiographical editorial circulating around the state. Like most puff pieces from politicians, it begins by saying, “I never thought of getting into politics until . . .fill in the blank here.” In Sheehy’s case it’s Afghanistan. It also gives him a chance to highlight his military service while condemning President Biden.
He must have forgotten that Donald Trump had reduced U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 13,100. In November 2020, he ordered that all troops would be evacuated by January 2021. Typical of Trump, he changed his mind and ordered withdrawal of more troops, instead leaving a total U.S. military force of 2,500 facing the Taliban in the strongest military position it had been in since 2001. The truth is U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan was plagued with problems for the 20 years we were there, just like the Russians before us. Pinning it on Joe Biden ignores facts and history. But hey, this is politics.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf
But back to Sheehy’s editorial. He then goes on to frame his decision to run for Senate in a “call to duty” format with a dollop of family values and business experience. You may have noticed that we didn’t say “private sector” experience. That’s because earnings from his company, Bridger Aerospace, which generates about $5 million a year for Sheehy, is mostly working on government contracts fighting forest fires. He also owns luxury houses in Big Sky, Polson, and Bozeman, in addition to a share of a large ranch outside Martinsdale.
And like most rich people, he has lots of investments. He says his net worth is between $74 and $200 million. (A complaint has been filed against Sheehy for the lack of specific information in his disclosure forms by a group called End Citizens United.) While he is condemning China, he’s investing in Chinese companies. While attacking environmental investment strategies, he is investing in “sustainable” software products to manage carbon emissions. He even removed the words “fighting on the front lines of climate change” from the Bridger Aerospace website after announcing he was running for Senate. https://montanafreepress.org/2023/11/03/taking-a-look-at-tim-sheehys-finances/
Like most rich people, Sheehy had considerable advantages provided by his family. He grew up in a multi-million dollar lake house in Shoreview, Minnesota, a wealthy suburb of St. Paul. He attended a private high school before being accepted to the Naval Academy. It’s hard to say when he became a resident of Montana. In 2016 Sheehy reported the Shoreview house as his residence in campaign reports of his donations to Greg Gianforte.
But probably the most disturbing thing about Sheehy’s editorial is his parroting of Trump’s dark conspiratorial view of America. He writes. “. . .the alternative is to leave these Marxists who weaponize cancerous ideologies like DEI and ESG and don’t represent our values in control—and to me, that’s unacceptable.” Most of us have no idea what DEI and ESG means (DEI- Diversity Equity and Inclusion/ ESG- Environmental, Social, Governance). His demonization and use of the term Marxist to describe his political opponents is straight out of Senator Joe McCarthy’s playbook. Ironically, this kind of red-baiting is fundamentally anti-American.
by Ken Toole | Jan 23, 2024 | Elections, Schools
OOOOPS!
Republican candidate for Superintendent of Schools, Susie Hedalen, recently published this endorsement ad on Facebook. Aside from using a photo of an anti-public education Governor, can you spot what’s wrong with this picture?
Remember, dear Susie is hoping we’ll elect her to run our public schools. Does this “endorsement annoucment” fill you with confidence in Susie’s skills?
by Ken Toole | Jan 23, 2024 | Elections, Energy/Utilities
Here’s a video of Matt Rosendale standing in front of Judith Gap wind mills not turning during Montana’s recent extreme weather event. Matt wants us to know that windmills don’t generate power when there is no wind (duh!). He explains that is why we can’t rely on wind power to meet our energy needs. Rosendale and his ilk make the same point about solar power. https://twitter.com/i/status/1746208420871688233
What Rosendale left out of his propaganda pitch is the fact that the coal plants at Colstrip were “curtailed” during the same severe weather event, producing about half of their capacity for a week before he posted his video. He also failed to mention that a natural gas hub in Washington State also went off the line at the same time. https://dailymontanan.com/2024/01/18/montana-could-be-a-leader-in-energy-but-weve-fallen-behind/
The reality is that the more different kinds of power generation we have feeding the grid the less likely outages are. But far-right officials like Rosendale can’t be saying that, because it would be supporting DIVERSITY, and we can’t have that can we?
by Ken Toole | Jan 23, 2024 | Elections, Energy/Utilities
Public Service Commission Chair, James Brown, announced that he is running for State Auditor in the 2024 election cycle. Last cycle he ran unsuccessfully for the Supreme Court in one of the sleaziest campaigns in recent memory. In that race, Brown was dogged by allegations that he repeatedly violated the rules prohibiting partisan endorsements in judicial races. https://montanafreepress.org/2022/05/25/republican-support-stacks-up-in-montana-supreme-court-race/
The court race was not the first time Brown played fast and loose with campaign law. When he ran for PSC in 2020, there were questions raised about his claiming residence in Dillon. Specifically, Brown owned a home and operated a law practice in Helena, which is outside his PSC district. But in his candidate filing, he used a Dillon post office box. In Brown’s candidate filing, he lists a Dillon post office box as his mailing address. In his corporate filing for his law practice, he wrote that his home address was in Helena. He argued that he lived in a house in Dillon with his cousin. But when asked how much time he spent in Dillon by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, he refused to answer, saying it was not “relevant.”
https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/complaint-filed-against-psc-candidate-disputing-residency/article_b905ad5d-c43e-56b7-b117-115b300681db.html
After winning election to the PSC and being chosen as PSC chair, Brown was caught up in a scandal regarding audit exceptions found at the PSC by legislative auditors. While the allegations in the audit report occurred before Brown was on the commission, he was called to legislative committee hearings to respond to questions from legislators about what was going on at the PSC. He initially refused to provide the name of a fellow commissioner who had booked a $1,400 first class plane ticket to Washington DC. He later identified the commissioner, former chairman Brad Johnson. (Johnson is currently running for US Senate.) https://montanafreepress.org/2021/06/08/psc-rebuked-for-legislative-audit/
In addition to Brown’s adventures in the electoral arena, he has a long history of activity in the world of dark money in politics. He was the attorney for a group called the Western Tradition Partnership. The activities of this group came to light when a box of documents were found in a meth house in Colorado, which detailed a laundry list of political dirty tricks in Montana and was the subject for a PBS documentary titled Dark Money. Brown also served as the lawyer for the Montana Republican Party from 2009 to 2015. (https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/darkmoney/
https://www.propublica.org/article/documents-found-in-meth-house-bare-inner-workings-of-dark-money-group)
For those who think these kinds of things are just politics as usual consider this. Brown was the chair of the Public Service Commission when it approved a 28% rate increase for consumers, siding with NorthWestern Energy over numerous public interest organizations. He now wants the State Auditor’s job regulating the insurance industry in Montana. Elections really do matter.
by WTF 406 Staff | Jan 16, 2024 | Elections
By Ken Toole
Greg Gianforte’s selection of Republican Legislator Paul Green to lead the Department of Commerce is being questioned by a long-time Democratic political leader. In a letter to the Daily Montanan and Montana Free Press, the former Chair of the Public Service Commission and Democratic Senator from Chinook Greg Jergeson wrote, “I believe that appointment violates Article 5, Section 9 of the Montana Constitution. Section 9. Disqualification. No member of the Legislature shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, be appointed to any civil office under the state; and no member of congress, or other person holding an office (except notary public, or the militia) under the United States or this state, shall be a member of the legislature during his continuance in office.”
Green was appointed to fill the Commerce position when previous director, Scott Osterman, abruptly left. He was forced to resign after an internal review found he had violated state expense policy by billing the state for vehicle and lodging expenses related to traveling to the state capital in Helena from his home in Kalispell.
Green, who is a rancher and businessman from Hardin, was elected for the first time in 2022 to a seat representing a majority Native district which includes reservation communities in southeast Montana. Green is not a tribal member nor Native American. His legislative district includes much of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and likely will favor Democratic candidates in the coming election cycle.
In his letter pointing out the constitutional issue, Jerrgeson said, “I had conversations with the Constitutional Convention Delegates with whom I served in the legislature about this particular provision (especially the first part), and they told me the convention adopted this provision in order to prevent some future governor from securing the vote on a matter before the Legislature by offering to appoint that person to a position that is much better compensated than the relatively minor compensation that is afforded to Legislators.”
It remains to be seen whether the governor will address this situation and this apparent legal conflict. Given this administration’s consistent disregard for legal limitations, it seems doubtful.
