Governor Bullock is abusing his constitutional authority

Letter to the Editor:

We recently sent emails regarding two subjects to Governor Bullock. One was regarding expanding Medicaid. We got no response.

The second was seeking information about the group Farmers and Ranchers for Montana (FARM), a mysterious new group spending gobs of money in Montana politics to promote passage of the CSKT water compact. Since the Governor has been so vocal about reigning in dark money groups, it seemed he would be on top of this one. He claimed to know nothing about them.

As it turns out, FARM is a large, internationally-funded political marketing firm on the same side of the CSKT issue as the governor. He has not required FARM to register as a lobbyist or investigated where all their money is coming from.

What we find just as troubling is that a few days after we emailed Bullock’s office, we received an unsolicited e-mail from him asking our help getting SB 289 passed. He told us who to contact, how to contact them and what to say when we did.

Nothing in our communication with him can be construed as giving him permission to use our information to influence the legislative process on his behalf. The governor inappropriately used our contact information to solicit support of his agenda.

Besides misusing our contact information, we find it disturbing that Governor Bullock is inserting himself into the legislative process where he doesn’t belong.

The governor should remember he does not have the authority to make law. Only the legislature has the constitutional authority to make law in Montana. His job, as the chief executive, is to see that the laws passed by the legislature are faithfully carried out.

Our branches of government are supposed to remain separate in order to provide checks and balances against one another. Governor Bullock shouldn’t be using taxpayer resources to lobby the legislature or  the power of his public office to coerce Montana citizens into lobbying the legislature on his behalf.

We find his tactics cross the line.

— Sig and Kate Person, Paradise