Complaints question campaign practices in sheriff’s race
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Just days before voters headed to the polls to select a new sheriff for Lake County, Commissioner of Political Practices Dennis Unsworth said he received three more complaints alleging illegal campaign activity in the race.
One complaint was filed Oct. 27, and two on Oct. 28, all alleging that Jay Doyle and his supporters “are knowingly violating federal mail fraud statutes (and) Montana state civil and criminal statutes in an attempt to illegally influence Lake County voters in the election scheduled for Nov. 2, 2010.”
“They appear to be identical,” Unsworth said of the complaints, which were submitted by Bob Williams, John Swenson Jr. and Troy Ricciardi, all of Polson.
The complaints allege that the Doyle campaign has illegally distributed anonymous political fliers in mailboxes, at candidate forums and by e-mail throughout Lake County. The fliers begin with the headline, “Warning: Don’t be fooled!” and go on to state that sheriff’s candidate Steve Kendley and Concerned Citizens of Lake County “are one and the same;” that claims of corruption in the sheriff’s office made by former LCSO deputy Terry Leonard are false; that a complaint filed with the Commissioner of Political Practices against the Jay Doyle campaign is “baseless;” and that Concerned Citizens of Lake County is a Political Action Committee.
The fliers also include a copy of an Aug. 7 e-mail from Leonard to about 20 people — their seemingly personal e-mail addresses are included on the fliers — with the subject heading “RE: Steve Kendley Election Volunteer Meeting.” In the e-mail, Leonard asks Mike Gehl, an LCSO detective and Kendley’s campaign manager, to reschedule an election volunteer meeting set for Aug. 19, since Leonard and several other people — apparently Kendley supporters — were planning to attend a meeting of the Montana Public Safety Officer Standards and Training Council on the same day.
“The POST Council meeting in Helena ends at 5:30 p.m., which would not give us enough time to get back for this election meeting,” Leonard states in the e-mail.
The fliers claim that the e-mail links Kendley with Concerned Citizens of Lake County, a claim Kendley has repeatedly denied, although he said he agrees with several of the allegations of corruption in the sheriff’s office that are listed on asksheriffluckylarson.com. The asksheriffluckylarson website states that it’s sponsored by Concerned Citizens of Lake County, and Leonard says he is the site’s owner and founder.
The fliers in question go on to say, “Perhaps it is time to reconsider who you support and whose sign is in your front yard” — a statement that Williams, Swenson and Ricciardi’s complaints say is a threat to voters.
The complaints allege that Doyle has violated several Montana statutes, among them illegal influence of voters; election materials not to be anonymous; and privacy in communications; as well as federal statutes on mail fraud.
Ricciardi, whose e-mail address is listed among the recipients of the e-mail published on the “Don’t be fooled” fliers, said he got a flier in his mailbox during the week of Oct. 18. A Kendley supporter, Ricciardi said he decided to file a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices when he realized his private contact information was being publicly distributed without his consent.
“They’re passing out my personal e-mail information, and putting it in people’s mailboxes,” he said.
Doyle said he didn’t know anything about the “Don’t be fooled” fliers until a reporter from Kalispell called him Friday morning to discuss the issue.
“Everything that I have put out has had my name on it,” Doyle said. “(The distribution of anonymous fliers) was without my knowledge (and) without my consent. I would never have done something like that.”
Unsworth said his office has five days after receiving a complaint to decide whether or not to open an investigation, so he wouldn’t know until after Election Day if the three complaints were accepted. Upon receiving a complaint, the first step for Unsworth is to hear the other side of the story, he said; in this case, that means speaking with Doyle. On Friday, Doyle said he hadn’t been contacted by Unsworth’s office yet.
If the political practices commission accepts the complaints, investigations will follow. Then if Unsworth finds wrongdoing, he’ll pass on the information to the county attorney, who has an opportunity to prosecute.
If the county attorney doesn’t act on the information provided by the political practices commission, then Unsworth would file a complaint in District Court.
Penalties for violations of campaign law usually involve the guilty party paying fines, although Unsworth said a judge can undo the results of an election if the judge is convinced that illegal campaign practices influenced the election’s outcome.
“That’s never been done,” Unsworth said. “It’s a very difficult thing to prove to a judge … there are so many variables through an election.”
Unsworth’s office is already investigating a complaint filed April 13 by Lanny VanMeter, Doyle’s campaign secretary-treasurer, alleging that Concerned Citizens of Lake County is an illegal Political Action Committee that bought several newspaper advertisements and runs a website — asksheriffluckylarson.com — campaigning against Doyle.
An investigation into another complaint filed by Ken Scott of St. Ignatius against Doyle is pending. In the complaint, Scott claims that Doyle illegally influenced voters by announcing a choice for undersheriff and later switching “running mates.”
With 56 formal complaints on the commission’s docket, and a dozen more submitted in the past two weeks, Unsworth said his small staff of five is overloaded. He couldn’t guess when the investigations into the VanMeter vs. Asksheriffluckylarson.com and Scott vs. Doyle complaints would be completed.
“We just have our hands full,” he said.
