As progressive groups are getting ready to reform lobbying in D.C. I received a tip that a former Montana state legislator, John Sinrud (R-Belgrade), broke the law in late 2009 because he appeared as a lobbyist to lobby on behalf of the Northwest Montana Realtors.
It appears that the tipster was correct. Mr. Sinrud left the State Legislature on December 31, 2008. By Montana law, a member of the legislature must wait exactly two years before becoming a lobbyist. This law was passed overwhelming by voters in 2006 as a ballot measure, as part of a comprehensive ethics reform initiative by Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.
You can see a picture of the smug-looking Sinrud atwww.MTcowgirl.com, where this diary is cross-posted.
It is an important legal prohibition, as it prevents public servants here in Montana from making personal business-use of the relationships and connections they establish while serving the public. It also makes it less likely that legislators or other government officers will cut shady deals in their last days in office and get rewarded, with a job, by the corporate beneficiary, immediately upon leaving office...
The Montana Code, Section 5-7-310, says a person can’t lobby or even get a license if “during the 24 months prior to applying for a license, that individual served as a state legislator”.
And yet, on December 4, 2009 only a year after leaving office, Sinrud showed upat the state legislature to lobby for the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors at an interim committee, and declared that he was, in fact, appearing before the committee to advocate for that group. He has also, I am told, lobbied in front of the Whitefish City Council and Flathead County Commission prior to December 31, 2009. I believe, but am not certain, that those activities, too, are against the rules.
This stuff seems pretty cut and dried. If there is a loophole here, I don’t see it, but if there is, I hope Sinrud will take this opportunity to explain himself.
Sinrud should be held accountable if his actions contravened the Montana state ethics statute. Assume they do, North West Montana Realtors will be required to make a decision as to whether they want him representing them. Right now he is a major force behind shady campaign tactics and shadow groups, as he has been for the last several election cycles in the Flathead and elsewhere. Western Tradition Partnership should also be held accountable for having a scofflaw as its head.
Actually, that was already the case. This is not the first transgression by Sinrud. He was busted for practicing architecture without a license in 2007. He blamed Schweitzer for that.
Maybe he feels that he is now getting some revenge by breaking a law that Schweitzer created.