#MTGov Daily Rundown: Bullock, Hillary, and the DNC Struggle with Email

Apparently email is hard for Democratic politicians. Debbie Wasserman-Shutlz, Chair of the Democratic National Committee, announced her resignation yesterday after leaked emails revealed widespread corruption in the party. Here in Montana, our own Governor Steve Bullock is dealing with his own email issues.

"Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has used his private email account to communicate about a wide variety of official business from proposed legislation to his increasingly strained relationship with the former lieutenant governor, according to hundreds of pages of emails released Friday." -Great Falls Tribune, 5/6/2016

"The newly released records shed more light on the strained relationship between McLean, Bullock and his staff. McLean complains to Bullock about her treatment by his budget director, Dan Villa, whom she said told her 'either you are on the team or you are not.'

In May, the lieutenant governor wrote a letter to Bullock saying Chief of Staff Tracy Stone-Manning had confirmed that he was considering a different running mate for his 2016 re-election campaign. 'I guess I am learning ambition is a funny thing and realizing the full consequences of standing up for what you believe it right,' McLean wrote." -Great Falls Tribune, 5/6/2016

"Hundreds of pages of documents, which were released Friday, show the democratic governor used his private account for official communications regarding his proposed state budget... legislation... and even lighting the state capitol at night. bullock previously told the associated press that he uses private email to communicate about political or election issues, but that government affairs are sometimes in those communications." -KFBB, 5/6/2016


The emails from the governor's private account were released after emails from official state accounts showed an increasingly strained relationship between Bullock and then-Lt. Gov. Angela McLean.

"Gov. Steve Bullock and his administration had a strained relationship with Lt. Gov. Angela McLean and had considered replacing her on the 2016 ticket since early this year, according to internal emails and top Bullock staffers.

Emails obtained late this week by MTN News also showed that McLean had become largely isolated on the job by early October, when she was locked out of her official Twitter account, excluded from office meetings, and stripped of her initiatives." -MTN News, 12/11/2015


Reporter compares Bullock to Hillary:

Hillary Clinton has, of course, faced a tremendous amount of scrutiny for illegally using a private email server while Secretary of State. Despite, initial denials, it was found that Clinton sent and received classified information over an insecure server.

Clinton denies sending classified information:

"But on a day of political high drama in Washington, Mr. Comey rebuked Mrs. Clinton as being 'extremely careless' in using a private email address and server. He raised questions about her judgment, contradicted statements she has made about her email practices, said it was possible that hostile foreign governments had gained access to her account, and declared that a person still employed by the government — Mrs. Clinton left the State Department in 2013 — could have faced disciplinary action for doing what she did." -New York Times, 7/5/2016

"Of 30,000 emails Mrs. Clinton handed over to the State Department, 110 contained information that was classified at the time she sent or received them. Of those, Mr. Comey said, aa very small number' bore markings that identified them as classified. This finding is at odds with Mrs. Clinton’s repeated assertions that none of the emails were classified at the time she sent or received them." -New York Times, 7/5/2016


Just yesterday, Chair of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was forced to resign after leaked emails on the process leading up to the Democratic National Convention revealed widespread corruption in the party.

"Democratic National Committee documents recently released by WikiLeaks include spreadsheets and emails that appear to show party officials planning which donors and prominent fundraisers to provide with appointments to federal boards and commissions." -The Daily Caller, 7/24/2016

“'The disclosed DNC emails sure look like the potential Clinton Administration has intertwined the appointments to federal government boards and commissions with the political and fund raising operations of the Democratic Party, Boehm told The Daily Caller." -The Daily Caller, 7/24/2016