With Montana’s 2022 general election in the rear view mirror, we can all look forward to a productive 68th Legislative Session, free of the unethical behavior that permeates certain other state capitols.
Then again, those dysfunctional legislative bodies aren’t administered the Montana Ethics Quiz.
Yes, there is such an ethics quiz, made available biannually to incoming Montana legislators ahead of regular sessions, to convene next in January. The test is just one component of the state’s efforts to educate, monitor and enforce ethical standards among Montana’s elected officials.
What I find unique about the quiz are the multiple choice answers, some so purposely absurd that even the most at-risk politicians should be able to distinguish right from wrong.
Here’s how it works: Helena lawmakers are presented with 15 hypothetical situations, each followed by a question and series of possible answers that a Kalispell third grader could figure out, once they stop laughing.
Take Hypothetical Situation No. 3:
“A professional lobbyist … offered to buy you and members of your caucus lunch at the Capitol Chicken Club (CCC), which provides a quiet location to dine and discuss business … While looking over the menu, which has a variety of chicken meals under $15, the lobbyist informs you that he wants to thank everyone for voting against House Bill No. 1000 by ordering the ‘Deluxe Chicken Dinner’ … You happen to glance down at the menu and see that each deluxe chicken dinner comes with a bottle of Dom Pérignon that can be packaged to go. The price of the deluxe chicken dinner is not on the menu, but you perform a quick search on your smart phone and learn that the average retail price of Dom Pérignon is between $100 to $120 per bottle.
“Question: Do you let the lobbyist pay for the deluxe chicken dinner?
A. Yes, because the menu does not indicate the price of the deluxe chicken dinner.
B. No, it would be a violation of the Montana Code Annotated to accept the meal.
C. No, because the champagne was not made with Montana agricultural products.
D. Yes, because the cost of the food is approximately $15, and it will take at least 3 days to consume the entire bottle of Dom Pérignon, which in turn would lower the amount the lobbyist spent on a per-day basis.
“Answer B.”
For those lawmakers unable to come up with the correct answer, Montana’s Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices (COPP) is standing by to assist. In addition to keeping watch over politicians, public officers and state employees, COPP investigates complaints surrounding campaign financing and lobbying.
Which made it all the more unsettling last year when COPP itself came under the ethical microscope. On the heels of a lawsuit filed by a Republican lawmaker against COPP’s current commissioner and his immediate predecessor, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill directing COPP to immediately make public all ethics complaints upon receipt (regardless of whether they might have been filed for political leverage and/or to embarrass an opposition candidate in the midst of a campaign).
Previously, for what it’s worth, ethics complaints sent to the nonpartisan office were rightfully kept under wraps until COPP’s commissioner could rule on whether they had merit.
Anyway, back to Montana’s Ethics Quiz. It concludes with “Hypothetical Situation No. 15,” where a state senator seeks to hire his “uncle’s son” as a temporary legislative aide, even though the relative “has no experience or aptitude for the position.”
Question: does the senator’s cousin get the job?
Let’s skip over a most bizarre answer C – “No, because your uncle’s son has bad body odor” – to D, which states that the cousin, while unqualified, can indeed fill the position because Montana law states “you may hire temporary legislative session staff that are related to you regardless of merit.”
Nepotism, you ask? Montana law allows for exceptions to its aptitude rule when hiring “family and friends” for temporary legislative sessions.
Here’s the bottom line: practicing proper ethics isn’t rocket science. Politicians, unless doing so intentionally, ought to be smart enough to realize when they’re crossing ethical lines. My advice is to simply remember what our mothers warned us: sooner or later you’re going to get caught.
John McCaslin is a longtime print and broadcast journalist and author.