HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Legislative leaders ended a stalemate Friday and will forward two names for Montana Gov. Steve Bullock to consider for the next commissioner of political practices to oversee the state’s campaign, ethics and lobbying regulations.
The four Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and Senate agreed to nominate former state Sen. Jeff Mangan of Great Falls and Ben Tiller, a staff attorney for the Montana State Auditor in Helena.
Bullock must now pick one of the two as the successor to Commissioner Jonathan Motl, whose term ended on Jan. 1 but has remained in office until his replacement is found.
The next commissioner must be confirmed by the state Senate in order to serve a full six-year term.
Tiller stressed his nonpartisanship, saying he doesn’t contribute to candidates’ campaigns and that nobody but his closest friends knows his politics. He told the lawmakers that he would bring that impartiality to the job that has been marked by partisan wrangling because of its campaign oversight duties.
Mangan served in the House and Senate as a Democrat from 1999 to 2006. He later served on the Great Falls Airport Authority as a commissioner and a chairman. He told the legislative committee that he earned the respect of both parties during his time in the Legislature and that he would make decisions based on evidence and not on political party affiliation.
The House and Senate majority and minority leaders interviewed eight people for the position, but initially could only agree on Tiller. The Democrats, House Minority Leader Jenny Eck and Senate Minority Leader Jon Sesso, balked on the candidates that the Republican leaders supported because those candidates weren’t attorneys.
The Republicans, House Speaker Austin Knudsen and Senate President Scott Sales, in turn rejected the other candidates that Eck and Sesso supported.
That created a problem because the legislators are required to send the governor between two and five candidates. If they can’t, the governor can pick whoever he wants to fill the role.
The stalemate lasted most of the month. It broke Wednesday after Bullock and Sales met over the issue, according to a report by Montana Public Radio.
Eck said she and Sesso agreed to support Mangan after the Republican lawmakers promised that they would insert funding into the state budget for a staff attorney for the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices. That position had been eliminated in the budget as part of proposed spending cuts across state government.
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