Ruchti: ‘Sen. Nye did not do what he is accused of doing’
“The basic allegations against my client are wrong,” James Ruchti, attorney for Sen. Mark Nye, D-Pocatello, told the Senate State Affairs Committee as it considered Nye’s election opponent's contest of the election results. “Sen. Nye did not do what he is accused of doing.”
The nine contributions in question, which came in between Jan. 1, 2016 and March 1, 2016, totaled $1,412.50, he said. Seven of the nine were repayments for seats at his table at the Democratic Party’s Frank Church banquet. Two others were just donations he’d received. Nye put all nine donations in his campaign account.
Ruchti said with then-Sen. Roy Lacey, D-Pocatello, weighing his decision not to run again, there was a time period, not a single point in time, when Nye decided to run for the Senate rather than run again for the House, as Lacey’s seat opened up. He reported all the contributions and had an appointed political treasurer both for his House campaign and for his new Senate campaign, and it was the same treasurer.
He said Nye conferred with the Idaho Secretary of State’s office on how to handle the transfer, and was advised that no more than $2,000 could be transferred from the House campaign to the Senate campaign, to comply with limits of $1,000 each for the primary and general elections. Nye, an attorney, disagreed with that finding, but complied with it, Ruchti said. The $1, 412.50 that was transferred was less than the $2,000 limit. “That money was used from the House account to the Senate account in the way prescribed by the Secretary of State’s office,” Ruchti told the senators.
In addition, a local resident filed a complaint, and the “Secretary of State’s office took a look at this very issue,” Ruchti said. “They found there was not a violation.”
Overall, Ruchti said, none of the issues raised by Katsilometes affected the result of the election, which Nye won by more than 500 votes. He said the argument from Kahle Becker, attorney for Katsilometes, that the matters made the election unfair isn’t the proper standard, and that many things can make an election unfair, from one candidate being richer to another being better-known.