by Travis Mateer
Once again there’s a news story about Westridge Creative and the political office seekers who get tainted by this “consulting firm”, something I’ve written before, like this eloquently titled piece: Does Jim Parker’s Westridge Creative Give Zero Fucks About Campaign Laws?
How else should one interpret the chronic problems that seem to follow this firm?
Last fall, a volunteer for a competing judge candidate filed complaints with the commissioner accusing Jennifer Streano, Eli Parker and Jacob Coolidge of financially coordinating campaign efforts. The allegations say the judges raised contributions as individuals, then essentially pooled the money for management and coordination by Westridge Creative, a campaign consulting firm.
The question left unasked is whether Westridge Creative is an INCOMPETENT consulting firm, or a zero-fuck-giving one.
I’d say the latter, considering Westridge Creative helped Sheriff McDermott fall under similar scrutiny, which I wrote about around the same time Jim Parker was getting all peace signy for the peace center.
Back to the latest charge, here’s the skinny, although the process of providing a deterrent would only lead to a negotiated fine, if anything.
While the commissioner’s office concluded the trio did violate campaign laws, enforcement remains in limbo. The commissioner is only tasked with investigating campaign violation complaints and determining if evidence of law-breaking exists.
I added the emphasis because, man, I often times feel like ENFORCEMENT REMAINS IN LIMBO. Take, for example, oh, I don’t know, witness tampering. Maybe it’s not even known what constitutes witness tampering, so to be ever helpful, here’s what Montana Code Annotated says:
If that fine print is too small to read (maybe because one of your eyes is covered with an eyepatch) then I suggest going to the link.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, if there’s NO DETERRENT for doing things–like breaking campaign laws and calling the woman the state could have called in your PFA case (but didn’t) after the reckless PI outed her on a radio show–then why stop doing it?
Thanks for reading.