Commit an assault as a CEO and you are almost certain to get fired in disgrace. Do so as a politician and you’ll live to fight — no pun intended — another day.

That’s one of the lessons to emerge from Montana’s special election Thursday to fill a vacant congressional seat. Republican businessman Greg Gianforte breezed to a win despite physically attacking a reporter just hours before the vote and getting charged with assault.

The seat up for grabs in Montana has been in Republican hands for 20 years in a state that President Trump won by 20 points.

By contrast, chief executives of America’s companies are held to a much higher standard of conduct compared to the nation’s politicians.

Just a few months ago, for instance, Silicon Valley veteran Abhishek Gattani was fired from tech startup Cuberon, which he co-founded, after he was charged with assaulting his wife.

Other top executives at companies such as HBO, Highmark Health, Entropic Communications and RadiumOne have also been fired in the past decade in the wake of accusations of assault.

CEOs are more likely to face the axe because of the money at stake. Bad publicity, a customer revolt, an investor backlash and boardroom angst all but assure that action will be taken, and quickly, before too much financial damage is done.

In 2014, for example, the board of RadiumOne fired their CEO after he pled guilty in a domestic violence case following a public backlash when the firm dithered.

The political arena operates by different rules and it’s been that way for a long time.

Read:How Paul Ryan and other lawmakers responded after Gianforte accused of ‘body slamming’

In perhaps most famous case, a southern Democrat in 1856 used a cane to severely beat abolitionist Republican Sen. Charles Sumner on the Senate floor in a dispute over slavery. The Democrat resigned to give his voters a chance to re-elect him — and they did.

More recently, Republican Rep. Michael Grimm of New York won reelection in 2014 less than a year after threatening to “break” in half a reporter trying to ask him a question in the nation’s capitol. He resigned just two months later after pleading guilty to tax evasion.

Similarly, Democratic Rep. Robert Filner was easily reelected in 2008 and again and 2010 despite being charged with assault in 2007 in Dulles airport after an altercation with personnel over delayed luggage. He later pled guilty to a lesser charge of trespassing.

The notoriously volatile Filner eventually became mayor San Diego, but he resigned after being accused of sexual harassment.

Unless lawmakers are convicted and sent to prison, they face better-than-even odds of getting elected in highly partisan districts even if they engage in controversial behavior.

Consider the case Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson. He was reelected in 2006 in a Democratic stronghold encompassing much of New Orleans while under investigation for suspected bribery.

He finally lost in 2008 after being indicted, but just barely so. He was beaten 49.6% to 46.8% by Republican neophyte Joseph Cao, but the district quickly reverted to Democratic hands in 2010 in a landslide.

In some cases, lawmakers under indictment have lost primaries to rival party members. Party leaders have also intervened now and then. Republicans pressured Rep. Trey Radel to resign in 2014, for example, after he was convicted of possession of cocaine

Still, partisans on both sides have historically shown a greater willingness to tolerate behavior in politicians they support than those who are members of the other party.

Democrats stood by President Bill Clinton in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, for instance, while Republicans propelled Donald Trump to the White House despite widespread allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior.

The intense partisan feeling is not just limited to politics, either. A new Harvard study shows Americans increasingly make critical everyday decisions based on their dislike of political opponents.