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Montana Democrats Lodge Ethics Complaint Against Secretary Of State Candidate

Montana Secretary of State Chief of Staff Christi Jacobsen
www.christijacobsen.com
Montana Secretary of State Chief of Staff Christi Jacobsen

Montana Democrats have lodged an ethics complaint against a Republican candidate for Secretary of State. Democrats accuse the current Secretary of State Chief of Staff of using public time to campaign.

In a complaint lodged Monday with the Commissioner of Political Practices the state Democratic Party says Christi Jacobsen violated Montana code by talking about her own candidacy during a work-related interview broadcast on Newstalk KGVO earlier this month.

According to KGVO, Jacobsen brought up her campaign and reasons for seeking office while talking about fees to run for public office.

Jacobsen filed fundraising paperwork to start her campaign last fall.

Montana Decratic Party Executive Director Sandi Luckey says Jacobsen was on the clock for her state job "and she shifted the conversation to being about the fact that she herself was a candidate for office and promoting her campaign, even going so far as to announce that she’d been endorsed by her boss, Corey Stapleton."

Jacobsen did not respond to a call requesting comment by deadline.

This is the first ethics complaint filed to the state’s top political cop this year. Prior to last May, ethics complaints were confidential until Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices considered whether the complaint was under the office’s jurisdiction.