Letter to the Editor
You may have heard about the Transparent Election Initiative and its Montana Plan, which aims to end the influence of corporate and dark money in our politics. The organizers believe that elections should be decided by voters, not by corporate checkbooks. We agree.
For almost 100 years, Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, prompted by the Copper Kings era, ensured that citizens, not corporations, led its elections. But in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling took away that protection. Now the Montana Plan can revive people power by making Citizens United irrelevant.
Citizens United said the state can’t regulate a corporation’s right to spend in politics once the state has given it that power. But it never said a state must give corporations political-spending power in the first place. Montana has autonomy over its corporate laws and can change them at any time.
The Montana Plan is designed to legally prohibit all Montana corporations, new or existing, from engaging in political spending by removing their power to do so. This renders the right granted by Citizens United irrelevant. The Montana Plan applies to out-of-state corporations, too. Montana was the first state to try to end dark money; dozens of other states have followed our lead.
The Montana Plan addresses a non-partisan issue. In a recent poll sponsored by Politico and Public First, people were asked whether they agree or disagree that “There is too much money in American politics” and “There is too much money from special interest groups in American elections.” In both cases, more than 70% of Republicans and more than 70% of Democrats agreed there is too much money in American politics and elections.
To remove money from the American political system, we need help collecting the thousands of signatures required to put the Montana Plan (I-194) on the November ballot. While we’re over halfway to our goal, the deadline for collecting signatures is June 19th.
Here are two ways you can help:
- Sign up to collect signatures: https://montanaplan.org/
- Find places where you can sign the initiative: https://sign.mttei.org/events
Together, we can end dark money in Montana politics.
Rick Lamplugh and Mary Strickroth