Above the law?

Area church broke campaign laws
By JENNIFER McKEE - IR State Bureau - 03/08/06
HELENA — A Helena-area Baptist church broke state campaign laws when it got involved in a 2004 effort to ban gay marriage but failed to file required campaign disclosure documents, the state’s political practices commissioner concluded Tuesday.

The Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church of East Helena was free to get involved in the successful campaign for Constitutional Amendment 96, a change in the Montana Constitution that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, said Gordon Higgins, commissioner of political practices. But by hosting meetings, distributing CI-96 petitions and other political activities, the church became an “incidental campaign committee’’ in the effort, Higgins said, and as such, is required to file disclosure records with his office.

“The church is not restricted from participating in the election process,’’ he said, but it should have disclosed the monetary value of its help to the campaign.

In a 10-page ruling issued Tuesday, Higgins wrote that other churches in the state were similarly involved in the debate, but they filed required campaign disclosure.

The church has since sued the office, alleging that the investigation violated the church’s right to free speech. That case is now pending in federal district court.

The investigation came in response to a complaint from a defunct group called Montanans for Families and Fairness, which led the fight against CI-96. Higgins said the group’s last known address, a Helena post office box, no longer accepts mail.

Berthold G. Stumberg, the church’s pastor, was not available for comment Tuesday.

The ruling does not stipulate any punishment. It was forwarded to the Lewis and Clark County attorney’s office Tuesday, Higgins said, although county attorneys generally don’t choose to pursue criminal cases in such instances.

In most cases, Higgins said, the office and the violating party settle the issue with a civil fine ranging from $50 to thousands of dollars.

The investigation concluded that the church, possibly acting on the advice of Jeff Laszloffy, a former Republican legislator from Laurel who was heading up the CI-96 campaign, circulated petitions needed to get the measure on the 2004 ballot. Stumberg also preached in favor of passing the amendment, and the church hosted a viewing of a show called “Battle for Marriage,’’ which stressed the importance of defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

No one filed a complaint against Laszloffy, Higgins said, and there is no pending investigation into his activities in the campaign.

The amendment passed by a nearly 2-to-1 margin