Funk and Ellis
The legalized corruption in Montana politics makes me sick.
It doesn’t really make anyone else sick – nothing ever changes.
What’s especially bad is that the party that should be doing something about this corruption – Democrats – is the same party that's engaging in it more than anyone!
I’m talking about money.
It comes down to political donations and what is done with those donations.
I call it funneling – taking donations from voters in your district and then funneling them off to candidates in other districts.
Most of the time this is done by candidates that are running unopposed.
Today I’d like to profile two of them.
It doesn’t really make anyone else sick – nothing ever changes.
What’s especially bad is that the party that should be doing something about this corruption – Democrats – is the same party that's engaging in it more than anyone!
I’m talking about money.
It comes down to political donations and what is done with those donations.
I call it funneling – taking donations from voters in your district and then funneling them off to candidates in other districts.
Most of the time this is done by candidates that are running unopposed.
Today I’d like to profile two of them.
HD 82 – Moffie Funk
Moffie Funk has no opponent.
She’s raised a total of $8,089.99 for her 2016 race and she’s spent $2,737.
Now she has $5,352 left. Again, she has no opponent this year…either in the primary or general.
So…why’s she need all that money?
She had a tough race in 2014 (I guess) beating out incumbent Liz Bangerter by 206 votes in a race that saw over 4,100 cast.
In 2014 she raised more than $24,000.
Pretty good for a school teacher.
So this year, with no opponent, she’s taking it a little easier, raising just a third of what she did last go-round.
Why?
What’s that money for?
It’ll be a common question I ask when I profile many of the candidates I mentioned yesterday in my post MT Finance Reports: What I’ll Be Looking For.
Looking at Funk’s expenditures, it’s clear she’s just funneling money up to statewide Democratic races.
She’s given:
And even though she has no opponent, Funk spent $425 with Helena’s Element L Design for campaign materials.
I think it’s clear that Funk just transfers your money to candidates she likes.
I hate this.
If you raise campaign funds you should only be able to use that for campaign expenses…not doling it out to your political cronies.
If you have money left over, it should be given to charity or returned to the donor.
Instead we see candidates like Funk raising money so they can use it to ingratiate themselves with higher-ups.
People like Funk don’t rely on their ideas to get ahead – they rely on how much they can pay others off.
People like Funk make me sick.
This is the corruption we see in politics today, and it makes me sick.
You’ll never see people like Funk try to change this system, either – it benefits them.
It’s sad that our politicians are doing this.
She’s raised a total of $8,089.99 for her 2016 race and she’s spent $2,737.
Now she has $5,352 left. Again, she has no opponent this year…either in the primary or general.
So…why’s she need all that money?
She had a tough race in 2014 (I guess) beating out incumbent Liz Bangerter by 206 votes in a race that saw over 4,100 cast.
In 2014 she raised more than $24,000.
Pretty good for a school teacher.
So this year, with no opponent, she’s taking it a little easier, raising just a third of what she did last go-round.
Why?
What’s that money for?
It’ll be a common question I ask when I profile many of the candidates I mentioned yesterday in my post MT Finance Reports: What I’ll Be Looking For.
Looking at Funk’s expenditures, it’s clear she’s just funneling money up to statewide Democratic races.
She’s given:
- $900 to MDLCC
- $250 to Denise Juneau
- $200 to Steve Bullock
- $100 to Shane Morigeau
- $100 to Melissa Romano
- $100 to Dee Ann Cooney
- $100 to Monica Lindeen
- $100 to Dirk Sandefur
- $50 to Jessica Karjala
- $50 to Mary Ann Dunwell
- $50 to Pat Noonan
And even though she has no opponent, Funk spent $425 with Helena’s Element L Design for campaign materials.
I think it’s clear that Funk just transfers your money to candidates she likes.
I hate this.
If you raise campaign funds you should only be able to use that for campaign expenses…not doling it out to your political cronies.
If you have money left over, it should be given to charity or returned to the donor.
Instead we see candidates like Funk raising money so they can use it to ingratiate themselves with higher-ups.
People like Funk don’t rely on their ideas to get ahead – they rely on how much they can pay others off.
People like Funk make me sick.
This is the corruption we see in politics today, and it makes me sick.
You’ll never see people like Funk try to change this system, either – it benefits them.
It’s sad that our politicians are doing this.
HD 81 – Janet Ellis
Janet Ellis currently has $2,127 in the bank after spending $5,691 over the summer.
Charter and Pfizer have both paid her off to the tune of $170 each.
She then takes donations like that, and others from individuals, and funnels them to her political cronies:
That’s $5,205, all of it going to Democratic legislative candidates or statewides.
The sole reason that Ellis chose to raise money, as far as I can see, is so she can funnel it to her friends.
This is a great way to get around campaign contribution limits, or get money to people that voters have no idea about.
And how about some politically-inclined state worker?
For instance, Eric Feaver gave Moffie Funk $150 early this year...and he's given money to lots of candidates. In fact, I bet he's maxed-out his contribution to some.
Wouldn't it be nice if he could get more money to Melissa Romano, say, by funneling it through Funk?
People like Funk and Ellis are campaign bundlers now, people whose job is to get elected for the sole reason that they can draw in campaign contributions where others cannot.
So long as they have no opponent (and even if they do) that money will be funneled to accepted candidates.
I call this corruption, but it’s perfectly legal under our corrupt Citizens United system.
Again, it makes me sick.
I called Janet Ellis up on the phone on Tuesday morning to discuss this.
First of all she said that she wasn’t the person to talk to about this.
I asked who was the person, as she’d raised a ton of money and then funneled $5,205 of that off to her political cronies.
She said this was legal.
When I asked why she was raising money in the first place she said it was because she thought she was going to have an opponent.
Because she didn’t have an opponent, she then gave that money to her political cronies.
I asked why she didn’t just give this money to charity and she hung up on me.
I wasn’t surprised – we often don’t like to talk about the things we know are wrong.
Charter and Pfizer have both paid her off to the tune of $170 each.
She then takes donations like that, and others from individuals, and funnels them to her political cronies:
- $1,000 to MDLCC
- $500 to Denise Juneau
- $300 to Bullock
- $200 to Dirk Sandefur
- $170 to Andrew Person
- $170 to Addrian Marx
- $170 to Carolyn Pease-Lopez
- $170 to Chris Goodridge
- $170 to Dave Fern
- $170 to Edie McCafferty
- $170 to Jen Gross
- $170 to Hal Jacobson
- $170 to John Fleming
- $170 to Jessica Karjala
- $170 to Pat Noonan
- $170 to Shane Morigeau
- $170 to Steve Muggli
- $170 to Virginia Court
- $150 to Jesse Laslovich
- $150 Mary Ann Dunwell
- $150 to Melissa Romano
- $100 to Jenny Eck
- $100 to Tom France
- $75 to Willis Curdy
- $50 to Kelly McCarthy
- $50 to Kim Dudik
That’s $5,205, all of it going to Democratic legislative candidates or statewides.
The sole reason that Ellis chose to raise money, as far as I can see, is so she can funnel it to her friends.
This is a great way to get around campaign contribution limits, or get money to people that voters have no idea about.
And how about some politically-inclined state worker?
For instance, Eric Feaver gave Moffie Funk $150 early this year...and he's given money to lots of candidates. In fact, I bet he's maxed-out his contribution to some.
Wouldn't it be nice if he could get more money to Melissa Romano, say, by funneling it through Funk?
People like Funk and Ellis are campaign bundlers now, people whose job is to get elected for the sole reason that they can draw in campaign contributions where others cannot.
So long as they have no opponent (and even if they do) that money will be funneled to accepted candidates.
I call this corruption, but it’s perfectly legal under our corrupt Citizens United system.
Again, it makes me sick.
I called Janet Ellis up on the phone on Tuesday morning to discuss this.
First of all she said that she wasn’t the person to talk to about this.
I asked who was the person, as she’d raised a ton of money and then funneled $5,205 of that off to her political cronies.
She said this was legal.
When I asked why she was raising money in the first place she said it was because she thought she was going to have an opponent.
Because she didn’t have an opponent, she then gave that money to her political cronies.
I asked why she didn’t just give this money to charity and she hung up on me.
I wasn’t surprised – we often don’t like to talk about the things we know are wrong.
