Council- elect pair faces suit
Lawsuit alleges duo’s signs were in violation
Troy candidate-elects Crystal Denton and Joe Arts have been served this week with legal papers questioning their political practices during the Troy City Council election campaign.
Local attorney Heather McDougall notified Arts and Denton she had removed campaign fliers posted in Troy at approximately 12:45 p.m. Sept. 22. Arts and Denton were advised in a formal letter by McDougall to remove all campaign material in violation with Montana Code Annotated.
Arts and Denton were given until 2 p.m. Sept. 26 to remove all illegal campaigning material. McDougall informed them she would forward a copy of the letter and exhibits (fliers) to the state of Montana Commissioner of Political Practices by 5 p.m. the same day if they failed to comply.
“I took down the fliers around town that I could find,” Arts said. “But, I never put them up and don’t know who did.”
Troy City Council Member and petitioner Frances McCully filed an affidavit Nov. 3 alleging the campaign violations.
According to the affidavit, item No. 8 states the campaign materials were removed until a week before the last day of the election. McCully removed a campaign poster at about 2:30 p.m. Nov. 1 allegedly in violation of the campaign laws for Montana.
“I did not endorse any of the fliers seen around town and never asked anyone to put them up,” Denton said.
McDougall also filed an affidavit Nov. 3 alleging violations to Montana campaign laws. Among some of the codes allegedly violated are §13-35-301 and §13-35-225 (1).
More than eight fliers are in question of violation and are lacking the necessary endorsement information. Before the affidavits were sent to Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, David Gallik, McCully and McDougall completed notarized complaint forms to include and submit.
Respondents Denton and Arts were notified by certified mail from Gallik’s office of the complaints received Nov. 4 from McCully. Respondents will have until Nov. 29 to respond to the complaints.
An investigation will be conducted when and if enough documentation and relevant information is produced.
“I have written a letter to the commissioner,” Denton said. “I thought Joe and I had taken the steps we needed to fix the problem.”