As usual, filling the commissioner of political practices job has set the state Senate to squabbling. Not everyone approves of Gov. Brian Schweitzer's nominee, Dennis Unsworth, the longtime mouthpiece for the state Department of Transportation. Rarely does anyone appointed to this post garner broad bipartisan support. That's hardly surprising given the fact that the person appointed by the governor of one party is supposed to be the referee of elections governing both parties.
Schweitzer appointed Unsworth last summer, after the previous commissioner, Gordon Higgins, resigned to take another job in state government. He needs confirmation by the Senate to keep the job. Unsworth attracted the ire of some conservatives last year when he started investigations into questionable signature-gathering practices having to do with a trio of conservative initiatives.
The job is worthless, as its long track record compiled by a long line of commissioners has proved. Well intended as an effort to keep elections fair and honest, the Office of Political Practices has never taken any truly significant enforcement action and almost never has taken any timely action. Nothing involving Montana elections would suggest this office has had the least success in promoting clean elections, counteracting the corrosive effect of big money in politics, keeping lobbyists honest and government free of lobbyists' undue influence or in any way promoting democratic ideals.
This office predates the Internet. That's worth noting, because the most useful function of the office is to chronicle and verify campaign finance reports. The same function could be performed by candidates themselves posting information online. Doing so would give citizens this important information in far more timely a fashion than they get it now. No commissioner of political practices has ever made so much as a dent in verifying and enforcing campaign finance irregularities. Bloggers and the public in general could do better if only they had the information in real time.
We're all for good government and fair elections. But this isn't something any commissioner of political practices delivers or can deliver. This is a bureaucratic layer that could easily be eliminated. Doing so (by requiring candidates to post immediately all contributions on a searchable database maintained by the secretary of state, who could also handle lobbyist registration and other functions) would actually make it easier for the best commissioners of political practices - the voters - to keep politicians and elections honest.
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