Sens. Barry Usher (left) and Jason Ellsworth (right) address the Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform on Monday, April 29, 2024. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
For a man who seemed to delight in tormenting Democrats and thwarting so many of their legislative plans, liberals in the Montana Senate sure have a funny way of rewarding that kind of antagonism.
Besides sympathizing with a man who has seemed to frustrate them for years, the Senate Dems’ moves backing former Senate Majority Leader Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, suggest they’ve decided to jump head-first with him in a mud bath of dirty politicking.
Ellsworth finds himself at the center of damning political investigations, including whether he used his power to create two last-minute contracts for a business associate that magically were split in order, apparently, to skirt state public bid requirements during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Then, Ellsworth told fellow Republicans in the Senate if he was not re-elected to his leadership post, he would create chaos, a vow that either intentionally or not, he’s appeared to keep.
New reporting on Tuesday revealed that Ellsworth not only ran against the sitting Republican incumbent Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court in a primary attempt, but then tried to force that same business associate into a job that was not even budgeted by the man who beat him, Bowen Greenwood. (For the record, Greenwood listened to Ellsworth pitch his friend, but declined the offer, which included a demand to work remotely, work flexible hours and raise revenue, which is not part of any Clerk of the Supreme Court functions.)
You’d think with all those questionable political morsels, Democrats would be salivating to open a thorough and public examination that would prove corruption in their rival party, which has repeatedly and openly mocked them about not having much political power at all.
But, Democrats’ unbroken string of political fumbles appears safe for now.
Keeping with their proud Montana Democratic tradition of stealing defeat from the jaws of victory, they opted instead to suspend the Senate’s Ethics Committee, one of the few bodies where they share equal power, and refer the Ellsworth matter to the Montana Attorney General, a move that confused even the Republicans, none more so than the Attorney General himself.
Montana Republicans are right to demand answers, and as Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said: Things seem to be popping up all over the place.
Meanwhile, the Democrats have embraced oblivion over the obvious, by declaring the matter too much of a distraction for senators to take up during the Legislature.
But complaining about political distractions in a place like the Legislature is like going to the circus, griping that the clowns ruined the show.
Speaking of clowns, it’s hard to tell what principle is animating the Democrats.
They rightfully refused to be drawn into Ellsworth’s previous spectacles, including a second special select committee on the state’s judiciary, which concluded with nothing particularly useful, but needed much remediation on civics. For example, even after being given a crash-course on the separation-of-powers doctrine, some members of that special select committee still maintained that Marbury vs. Madison, a court ruling decided before Lewis and Clark had even “discovered” Montana, was incorrect in their non-attorney judgments.
Back then, the Democrats had the good sense to stay far, far away from the committee that was producing the equivalent of legislative flotsam.
During that same committee, Ellsworth also threw out the idea of getting someone to track all the delightful ideas the committee had concocted, but he proposed the committee would need someone who would work cheaply, like a college student. The committee rejected that idea, saying the state’s own software was capable of tracking bills’ progress, and it worked for free. Undeterred, Ellsworth appears to have hatched the plan to employ his associate, to the tune of $170,000, which started this entire state contract hoopla.
Meanwhile, for years Ellsworth has tormented Democrats, stymying their legislation, helping secure even less representation for them on interim committees, making it difficult for already marginalized groups and attacking the state’s judiciary — all things the Senate Democrats opposed for good reason.
Equally antagonistic has been Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen who has continued to support every one of the Republican-majority Legislature’s actions, even though many were clearly in conflict with the state’s Constitution.
As the Ellsworth charges fall to Knudsen, thanks to the Democrats, there is a particular irony in that move, because the attorney general himself is facing 41 ethics convictions that could leave him suspended from his job for three months.
Knudsen, a former lawmaker himself, seemed confused by the Senate’s action to send details about Ellsworth to his office for investigation. Usually, criminal conduct is referred to a local or county investigator, not the state.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Knudsen sides with Democrats, a fact they either know or should. Instead, the attempt by Democrats to slide the Ellsworth matter over to the Attorney General is more likely an attempt to frustrate and delay the Republicans from coming after Ellsworth any time soon.
The real question is: Why?
The Republicans have even offered to fund a Democrat-approved lawyer for the ethics committee, something that they rejected.
The Senate, which makes its own rules, sits through countless meetings during the morning, only to meet again in the afternoon, and sometimes at night on weekends, seems ideally suited to have meetings to investigate one of its own members.
The problem was created in the Senate, exposed in the Senate, but Democrats want us to believe now that the Senate is incapable of deciding the fate of one of its own.
Montanans deserve to know and watch one of the state’s most powerful leaders being held to account, or all the Democrats’ sermons about good government take on a bitter and tinny ring.
The Democrats’ actions are like attempting to wrestle a pig in your Sunday church clothes, betting that no one will notice the dirt or smell.
It’s not changing the facts of the case for Ellsworth, and it’s only making Democrats look dirty and giving off the appearance that something stinks.