It appears that Democrat Kendall Van Dyk of Billings had his complaint about radio talk show host, David Berg, and Berg’s donation to Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown rejected by the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.

According to this story, Van Dyk contended that it was wrong for Berg to give money to Roy Brown’s campaign under his radio name, David Berg.

The Billings Gazette reported that, “There is no registered Montana voter under Berg’s name, Van Dyk said, and it’s illegal to give under a falsified last name.”

If Van Dyk believes you have to be registered to vote to give money to a campaign, that’s funny. But the funniest part of this whole issue is that the check written to Brown’s campaign listed both David Berg and his real name, David Fulwiler.

These frivolous complaints seem to be the method of operation for the Montana Democrats and their supporters. They don’t seem to win many.

In 2006, I remember several complaints were filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) by the Montana Democrats and their supporters in connection with the Burns/Tester race.

There was the FEC complaint about the seating at a debate (Case # MUR 5827 & 5829): The Commission decided by a vote of 5-0 to dismiss.

There was FEC complaint about the Inland Northwest Space Alliance (Case# MUR 5866): The Commission decided by a vote of 5-0 to dismiss.

There was the FEC complaint about automated phone calls (Case # MUR 5860): The Commission decided in a vote of 4-0 there was no wrongdoing by Burns’ campaign.

These are just a few. In doing a quick check, I don’t believe the Federal Election Commission ruled in the Democrats’ favor on any of their complaints concerning Burns/Tester. Maybe they did and I missed it?

You can do your own check of complaints on the FEC website at: http://eqs.sdrdc.com/eqs/searcheqs.

On the other hand, according to this story from 2007, “The Federal Election Commission has fined the State Democratic Central Committee $15,000 for not fully disclosing money it spent on a 2005 attack ad against former Republican Sen. Conrad Burns.”

I guess a good rule for the Montana Democrats and their supporters to follow would be when they file a complaint with the FEC or the state, they should actually have some solid evidence of wrongdoing before they hit the send key.