Candidate challenges campaign allegations

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Miller on Monday accused the state’s commissioner of political practices of making “false, unsupported and malicious accusations” in a report released Friday.

Miller told a press conference at the state Capitol in Helena Monday morning that “I am here to tell you that no laws — I repeat, no laws — have been broken. I have run a clean and honest campaign.”

According to the Associated Press, Jim Murry, the commissioner of political practices, found that Miller, a former state senator from Laurel, “has been funding his campaign with illegal donations that included anonymous, corporate and excess contributions.”

Miller responded aggressively Monday to Murry’s charges, saying that the commissioner was a former Democratic operative who had “attempted to smear my name and good reputation across this state.”

Tom Balek, a member of the Lewistown Tea Party working with the Miller campaign, said he had audited all of the campaign’s finance reports and found only “some very minor procedural mistakes and a couple of honest, minor mistakes.”

In a report issued to reporters at the Capitol, Balek — who presented himself as a retired corporate finance officer — alleged that “the campaign has, from the outset, maintained a complete, detailed and accurate set of income and expenditure records.”

Balek said most of the commissioner’s complaints “relate to excess contributions per individual for the primary election period.” Balek said he had previously identified a few contributions which were not allocated to the correct election period and contacted the commissioner’s office for instructions.

“The [commissioner] stated that it would be acceptable for the Miller campaign to allocate excess primary contributions to the general election, with the instruction that the campaign should contact these donors, albeit after the fact, and receive authorization for the reallocation,” Balek said.

According to Balek, “all of the alleged violations” of this type have “either been refunded or re-allocated to be in compliance.”

Other violations of campaign law alleged by Murry’s office also were denied by Balek and Miller

If Murry does not “withdraw his statement of findings” and allow a response to the allegations of wrongdoing, Miller said he will “be forced to file suit against the commissioner of political practices and the state of Montana to clear my name and my reputation.”