HELENA — When state Rep. Mike Miller of Helmville files the
required public report on his campaign contributors, he does it
electronically, over the Internet — and the public can view that
report online.
“Whenever I receive a contribution, I go in and log into the
system, and it keeps track of everything for you,” he said. “It
makes it real easy.”
The system, maintained by the state Political Practices Office,
also allows users to download a candidate’s entire report via the
Internet and search, online, for who is contributing to which
candidates.
Yet Montana’s system — which became a flashpoint in the last
month’s public blowup between then-Political Practices Commissioner
Dave Gallik and his four-person staff, leading to his Jan. 18
resignation — has not been without its hiccups and flaws.
The search and download functions became available to the public
just 10 days ago — nearly seven years after work on the electronic
system first began.
These functions apply to data only up to 2010, and sometimes
won’t retrieve data unless a candidate’s or contributor’s first and
last name are entered exactly as they’re listed on forms.
Electronic filing for all candidates running for statewide
office — required by a law passed in 2009 — has yet to be fully
implemented. It’s supposed to take effect in March, more than a
year after some candidates have been campaigning for offices like
governor.
Gallik, a Helena attorney appointed to the political practices
commissioner job last May, said getting the electronic system
completed — and fully accessible to the public — was his chief
goal when he took the job.
“I said we’re not going to have excuses, we’re going to look
forward, we’re going to make it work — test it, and get it out,” he
said in an interview last week. “(The staff) resisted. … It’s
appalling how long it’s taken.”
Resignation
Gallik resigned three days after the Great Falls Tribune
reported on accusations from the Political Practices staff that he
often wasn’t at work and spent considerable time on his private law
practice — including time at the Political Practices office.
Gallik said it was never a secret that he intended to maintain
his private practice while serving as commissioner, that he kept
the jobs separate, and that he was getting the job done at
Political Practices. That job included pushing the staff to get the
electronic campaign finance filing system completed, he said.
Mary Baker, program director for the office, told the Gazette
State Bureau that office staff has never “resisted” development of
the electronic filing system.
“Why would we do that?” she said. “(The electronic system) saves
the agency money, it saves us a ton of time. … I just think we
have to go piece by piece and do it carefully. It takes a lot of
time to build them and test them thoroughly to make sure they’re
working properly.”
Any delays have been the result of not enough resources or a
reluctance to roll out a new function before it’s ready, she
said.
Baker said the public need only look at what Montana’s system
can do to measure its progress: The public can view reports online
and download and search some data and search contributions, and
candidates and political committees can file their reports
electronically if they choose.
“We’ve launched 10 services in five years, (while) we’ve only
had two staffers work on this with the (contractors). I don’t think
that’s anything to be embarrassed about.”
Common
requirement
Almost every state requires reporting of campaign spending and
donations by candidates, political parties and committees — and
has for several decades.
Until the Internet age, about the only people who ever looked at
the records were opposing candidates, political consultants and
professionals and the media.
The dawn of the Internet in the 1990s offered the potential of
online access to these records. Some states developed electronic
access for the public to the records, as well as offering
candidates and committees the choice of filing records
electronically.
These efforts often move “in fits and starts,” said Edwin
Bender, director of the National Institute on Money in State
Politics, which tracks systems across the country and has built its
own database of state-level campaign spending.
“I often refer to it as the ‘infrastructure of democracy,’” he
says. “Disclosure is part of that infrastructure. If you can’t go
look at it … you’re going to end up with less accountability and
the public is going to disengage.”
Montana’s system often has lagged behind the efforts of other
states, he says, although it’s never had the money or resources it
needs.
“That office has been trying to do as good a job as they can and
they’ve always bent over backwards to help us,” he said. “But if
you’re underfunded, you’re underfunded.”
Baker estimated that $400,000 has been spent on Montana’s system
over the past half-dozen years.
In Wyoming, the Legislature appropriated $2.5 million in 2008 to
develop an entirely new, electronic campaign filing and reporting
system in two years. The Wyoming secretary of state’s office had
the system up by 2010.
Montana started work on potential online access for campaign and
other data in 2005. Not until 2008 could the public view campaign
finance reports online — and then only after office staff manually
scaned the paper documents submitted by candidates.
By 2010, candidates could choose to file documents
electronically, online — but it wasn’t required, and still isn’t,
for political parties and committees or local and “district”
candidates, like legislative candidates.
Miller, a Republican elected to the Legislature in 2008 and the
owner of a computer services company, was among the first lawmakers
to use electronic filing of campaign spending and donors. He says
he encourages others to do it and doesn’t see why it shouldn’t be
required of all candidates.
But even if a candidate files electronically, workers at the
Office of Political Practices still must scan a paper copy of the
document to make it available online to the public.
The data also cannot be searched or downloaded online until
they’re manually typed in to the office database. That’s why the
searchable database goes up only to 2010.
Baker says when candidates for statewide office, like governor
and attorney general, are required to file electronically as of
March, that data should be searchable right away. But data from
other 2012 races won’t be searchable or downloadable until 2013,
when it’s typed in manually, she said.
The search-and-download function first appeared on the office’s
website Jan. 25 — two days after the Gazette State Bureau inquired
about its status and a week after Gallik resigned. Baker says they
had planned to display it, but had to complete some last-minute
inputting of 2010 data.
Baker and the system’s main contractor, Montana Interactive of
Helena, say the system is basically finished, and now just needs
occasional testing and tweaking to make sure it’s working
properly.
If more candidates and committees are to be required to file
electronically, making information more readily available, the
Legislature must make that change in law. Already this year,
however, the vast majority of legislative candidates are choosing
to file reports electronically, Baker said.
“We’ll do our best to get people to use our services,” she said.
“It’s really not that complicated.”
The Political Practices Office’s campaign record system can be
viewed online at www.politicalpractices.mt.gov.
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