‘Montana Plan’ to prohibit corporate spending in politics green lit for signature gathering

A plan to prohibit corporations from spending money on political candidates or ballot issues, aptly named “The Montana Plan,” is moving forward with the signature-gathering process, though in a different form than initially proposed.

The Transparent Election Initiative originally put forward a ballot issue to make a change to the Montana Constitution, but both the state’s Attorney General and Supreme Court found the language violated a “single subject” rule that governs citizen initiatives.

Transparent Election Initiative leader Jeff Mangan, a former Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, said the group resubmitted the amendment with simplified language, but also submitted a similar measure for a statutory initiative, which would create a new law, rather than alter the Constitution.

In a press release on Wednesday, the Transparent Election Initiative announced the statutory version, dubbed I-194, had received a green light from the Secretary of State’s office to begin gathering the signatures needed to place the initiative on the November ballot.

“We’re grateful to the Attorney General and the Secretary of State for their work reviewing The Montana Plan,” Mangan, said in a statement. “With Initiative I-194 now cleared for signature collection, Montanans will have the opportunity to decide whether corporations and other artificial entities should be able to spend money influencing their elections.”

The campaign added that once again, the constitutional version of the proposal was rejected on legal grounds, but the Transparent Election Initiative will again challenge that decision before the state Supreme Court.

Mangan previously told the Daily Montanan he still prefers the constitutional initiative because it would establish the concept in the highest law in the state. However, signatures must be submitted by June 19 and the statutory initiative process has a lower threshold to end up on the ballot.

The campaign will need to submit roughly 30,000 valid signatures, half of what is required to change the constitution through the ballot process.

As primary elections heat up throughout the state, many candidates and talking about what is expected to be another large influx of money into Montana politics. At a recent Democratic congressional primary roundtable, candidates talked about a need to keep money out of politics; while Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines said part of his reason for dropping out of his re-election race at the last minute and selecting his successor was to prevent another expensive senate race, as the state saw in 2024 and 2020.