By Clayton Murphy| UM Legislative News Service
HELENA — A long-drawn ethics investigation into Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, came to a head on April 1 when Majority Leader Tom McGillvray moved to revoke nearly all of the former Senate president’s privileges, including a lifetime ban from the chamber.
McGillvray’s motion passed the two-thirds requirement at 44 to 6—a decisive victory after three motions to expel the senator failed, including one made that same day, which failed 25 to 25.
The censure comes as a response to investigations into $170,000 in state-funded contracts that Ellsworth signed in his waning days as Senate president in 2024.
Ellsworth can still vote remotely—essentially the only ability he still has. Ellsworth is barred from committees, certain legislative services and cannot initiate verbal contact with the executive and legislative branches.
Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, said the months-long saga has eaten up a lot of the legislative staff’s compensatory time, which is usually used for any remaining work when the legislature is not in session.
“There was a cost to everybody to do this and we’re gonna have to try to figure out how to balance the staff time that was directed towards that issue with our interim work, trying to figure out how to fund that interim work because there’s not a lot of comp time left,” Esp said.
Esp said he thinks the process was entirely necessary and hopes for more transparency going forward. He said that the Senate and legislative staff have their work cut out for them as the session rounds the two-thirds mark.
Clayton Murphy is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation. Murphy can be reached at clayton.murphy@umconnect.umt.edu.
