HELENA — After a controversy that’s been in the background for much of the Montana Legislature’s 2025 session, the Montana Senate finally debated Monday whether to take disciplinary action against former Senate president Sen. Jason Ellsworth – but in the end, senators couldn’t come to agreement on a possible punishment.
The Montana Constitution gives the Senate the authority to “expel or punish a member for good cause” if two-thirds of senators agree. More than half of the Senate voted Monday to remove Ellsworth, but the motion fell short of that two-thirds threshold. Even fewer senators were willing to vote for an alternative motion to censure him.
(Watch the video to hear the debate on whether and how to discipline Ellsworth.)
Both parties were split on the votes. In total, 27 senators supported expulsion, including 23 Republicans and four Democrats. 14 Democrats and nine Republicans – the group, including Ellsworth, that has broken with party leaders since the start of the session – opposed expulsion and supported the censure motion.
Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, was Senate president through the end of 2024. The Senate Ethics Committee investigated his approval of a contract with Bryce Eggleston, a longtime business associate, and his company Agile Analytics. The $170,000 contract called for Eggleston’s company to conduct an analysis of the outcomes from a slate of judicial reform bills Republican legislative leaders are prioritizing this session.
A Legislative Audit Division report said the proposed contract was originally split into two smaller contracts, and that it appeared that was an attempt to get around the rules for oversight on state contracts. Ellsworth has denied any wrongdoing.
Some of the allegations in the Audit Division report were forwarded to the Montana Department of Justice for criminal investigation. The Ethics Committee focused on one remaining question: whether Ellsworth violated his ethical obligations by not disclosing his ties to Eggleston.
Sen. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus, chaired the Ethics Committee, and he made the initial motion to expel Ellsworth Monday. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, then moved to make the expulsion immediate.
Mandeville said the Senate shouldn’t be limited to considering only the specific findings in the Ethics Committee report when determining good cause to expel a member.
“What the former Senate president did is a betrayal of the institution of the state Senate and a betrayal of the public trust,” he said. “We need to take this seriously.
Ellsworth himself spoke in response to the expulsion motions. Though he has been voting remotely for several weeks, he was at the Capitol in person for Monday’s debate.
Ellsworth said he didn’t personally benefit from the contract, but he that he regretted it might create “the appearance of impropriety” for the public.
“Most importantly, to my family – my children, my mother, my father, mother, God bless her – colleagues and all Montanans, I'm genuinely sorry,” he said. “And I accept whatever discipline this body deems appropriate.”
Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, said he wasn’t convinced by Ellsworth’s apology, and that it was clear he should have known the right thing to do. Hertz argued any punishment short of expulsion would be essentially “a slap on the hand.”
“We don't need to do anything with studying this, we don't need to put particular rules in place, we don’t need to change our rules,” he said. “We all know what ethics are and what we should and should not do – except for the person in Seat 31 who has a problem with that.”
Before the floor session, Senate Democrats held a caucus, where Senate Minority Leader Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, told his members they could “vote their conscience” but that he would be opposing expulsion. He said Ellsworth had shown “bad behavior,” but that he didn’t believe there was enough justification for expulsion, based on the limited findings from the Ethics Committee.
“I think the more obvious accountability is going to come through the investigation that's being done by the Department of Justice – and depending on their work, we may end up back here this session facing the same question,” Flowers said during the floor debate. “And at that point, it may be an easier decision to make, depending on what that outcome might be.”
Flowers backed the next motion, from Sen. Josh Kassmier, R-Fort Benton, to censure Ellsworth. It would have removed Ellsworth from two of his committee assignments, kept him off any interim committees when the session ends, and barred him from the Senate floor through April 12.
Kassmier said Ellsworth had made a mistake, but he recognized it and agreed to terminate the contract. He said expulsion wasn’t an appropriate punishment for failing to disclose a conflict of interest.
“I don't think there's any doubt much of this desire to expel him is a politically motivated punishment,” he said. “We need to be thoughtful about our approach today. This vote establishes a lasting precedent. For me, an expulsion is a step too far.”
Hertz said, if there was to be a censure motion, leaders from both parties needed to work together to make sure it was crafted appropriately, and he asked Kassmier to withdraw his motion.
“This looks like, to the public who's watching, we're sweeping this under the rug, we don't want to penalize one of our members,” he said.
Sen. Dave Fern, D-Whitefish, was one of the four Democrats who supported expulsion. In the debate on the censure motion, he said he expected the Senate would eventually settle on censuring Ellsworth – but he didn’t think they were ready on Monday.
“Right now, we haven’t got the votes to do either one,” he said. “And so we’re going to have to figure out a plan.”
Ellsworth told reporters after the debate that he had not yet determined whether he’d be attending Tuesday’s floor session in person.
On Sunday, the Montana Republican Party's executive board released a statement, saying the Ethics Committee's findings showed Ellsworth was “no longer fit to serve in the Montana State Senate” and saying they would back his expulsion if he didn't step down.
“We urge Senator Ellsworth to resign voluntarily in order to restore trust in the Senate and allow for a focus on the work that lies ahead for the people of Montana,” they said.
