Reminder: Mike Cooney Has Multiple Pending Ethics Complaints Against Him

Montana Lt. Governor Mike Cooney may have been partying like it was 1976 on Tuesday, but his narrow primary night victory was not all rainbows and milkshakes. Cooney now has to contend with multiple pending ethics complaints targeting his admitted use of taxpayer-funded state resources for personal political gain.

In just the last few weeks, multiple organizations have called for further investigation into Cooney using his official office to participate in a campaign strategy meeting.

The Associated Press reported in May that the Montana Republican Party formally filed an ethics complaint to determine whether Cooney broke state law:

The GOP’s complaint, filed Tuesday, says under state law, a public officer or public employee may not use or permit the use of public time, facilities, equipment, supplies, personnel or funds to solicit support for or opposition to the nomination or election of a person to public office.

Cooney, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, has acknowledged listening to a video conference call provided by the Democratic Governor’s Association on his personal laptop in his state office on April 13.

 
Two nonpartisan watchdog groups issued additional complaints in the following days: Americans for Public Trust and the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), who stated that Cooney must be “penalized” for his actions:
 

“The law is clear and so is the evidence in this case. This type of violation must be penalized not only to hold public officials responsible for the abuse of taxpayer funds, but to maintain citizens’ trust in government. In this case it appears Lt. Gov. Cooney made a clear choice to engage in political activity from the Capitol, which also requires remedial action to prevent this type of abuse in the future,” said Kendra Arnold, the Executive Director of FACT.

 
The ethics complaints are currently pending with Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices.

“Career politician Mike Cooney finds himself in the unenviable position of beginning a campaign under a strong cloud of suspicion after admitting to using his taxpayer-funded office to benefit his campaign,” said RGA Communications Director Amelia Chassé Alcivar. “If Mike Cooney can’t be bothered to follow the law after four decades in office, why should the people of Montana trust him with even more power?”