Ballot initiative to block corporate spending in Montana elections begins signature drive

A ballot initiative campaign seeking to block corporate spending in state elections got the greenlight this week to start rounding up the signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.

What's now called Initiative 194 seeks to circumvent the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United by changing Montana's law to preclude corporations from contributing to candidates and supporting or opposing political parties.

Transparent Election Initiative, the campaign behind the proposal, hit a snag in January when the Montana Supreme Court struck down the first version of the initiative. That proposal sought to make these changes in the state constitution, but the court found it  touched too many parts of the constitution for Montanans to cast a fully informed vote.

TEI rewired the second draft to make its changes through state law, which resolves the issue raised by the Supreme Court and requires a lower signature threshold to reach the general election ballot. The campaign now needs to get roughly 30,000 signatures, instead of 60,000.

The campaign is led by former Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan. They're calling I-194 "The Montana Plan."

"The calendar has always been our biggest barrier, since our initial one was legally insufficient, so this provides us the opportunity to get The Montana Plan on the ballot," Mangan said Friday.

However, a statutory change is also easier for the Montana Legislature to water down. Polls have found widespread support for limiting money in politics, so Mangan hopes the Legislature would abide by the voters' decision, rather than undo the limit on corporate spending.

"I think a strong showing would offset some of that," he said. "If the citizens put it on, that should carry some weight with the Legislature."

Mangan's group also submitted a second attempt at the constitutional amendment, although Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen's office last week found that measure insufficient once again. That proposal, known as Ballot Issue 9, still suffers the same defects, as the first constitutional amendment, deputy solicitor general Brent Mead wrote in the decision.

Mangan said Friday his group will challenge that decision and still hoping to push the constitutional change forward so to raise the bar against any challenges to the limit on campaign spending.

If successful in this second round in court, Mangan would still be up against a tight deadline: Signatures are due to county clerks of court by June 19.

Even after the adverse Supreme Court ruling in January, Mangan has continued to hit the road with TEI's proposal and working up enthusiasm across the state. He's scheduled for a tour stop in Conrad this weekend and will be in Thompson Falls early next week.

"Citizens love what we're doing, they all think there's too much money in politics," Mangan said. "We fully understand people might disagree, like corporations, but we'll handle them as we go."