Campaign finance complaint filed against PSC candidate

Montana Democratic Party Executive Director Nancy Keenan has filed a campaign finance complaint against Randy Pinooci of Sun River, the Republican candidate for Public Service Commission District 1.

The complaint asks the commissioner of political practices to investigate the source of a $3,000 loan Pinooci made to his campaign.

Pinocci is facing Havre Democrat Doug Kaercher in the race for the District 1 seat.

In her complaint, Keenan referred to Montana's commissioner of political practices finding that Billings Republican Public Service Commissioner Tony O'Donnell had violated campaign finance laws by making a $3,000 loan to candidate Rodney Garcia.

O'Donnell's contribution was roughly 17 times the legal amount allowed for contributions, Political Practices Commissioner Jeff Mangan said, and Garcia needs to return it.

Garcia and O'Donnell said it wasn't a contribution but a loan.

In her complaint, Keenan said that three days after Garcia received the $3,000 from O'Donnell, Pinocci loaned his campaign the same amount, and did not clearly indicate what the money was for. His campaign reporting has clearly listed what money was used for in other expenses, she wrote.

"We have reasonable suspicion that Randy Pinocci has received a similar offer as Garcia did from O'Donnell," Keenan wrote. " ... I believe these two incidences have very similar circumstances associated with them and thus merit further investigation of O'Donnell's loaning practices."

Pinocci said Thursday that O'Donnell wasn't the source. He said he got a cashier's check for himself from his bank to use for the loan - his bank told him that as an account holder he would not be charged a fee to obtain a cashier's check, Pinocci said - so he wouldn't have to wait for a campaign account check to clear so he could pay a man who wanted to be paid immediately, in advance, for preparing campaign signs.

He said he was sending documentation of the source to Mangan.

Pinocci said he plans to file a counter complaint asking that Keenan be forced to pay for the expenses incurred by the Office of Commissioner of Political Practice's investigation.

He said Keenan falsely swore to her complaint because she wrote that both O'Donnell and his wife maxed out their contributions to him previously when neither contributed to him.

He added that he doesn't even know O'Donnell's wife and claiming she gave him a contribution is "ridiculous."

Montana Democratic Party spokesman Roy Loewenstein said this morning that saying O'Donnells previously had contributed to Pinocci's campaign may have been an error, but that doesn't change the main point of the complaint.

"What's more important here is the the loan," he said, adding that Keenan thought the issue was worth investigating and Mangan agreed.

Keenan was not available for comment this morning.

Mangan said this morning that he was not aware whether O'Donnell's had made previous contributions.

"No, we're really looking at the loan," he said. "We're awaiting documentation.