HELENA — There are now just three days left for proposed ballot measures to get the signatures they need to go before Montana voters in November. The sponsors of a measure seeking to ban corporations from spending money in Montana elections are the latest to say they believe they’ve done enough to qualify.
“We're pretty excited; I think all of Montana should be excited,” said Jeff Mangan, the main sponsor of Initiative 194.
(Watch the video for more on what's next for I-194.)
On Tuesday, Mangan’s organization, the Transparent Election Initiative, announced it was submitting nearly 50,000 signatures – well above the 30,121 minimum they would need to qualify. According to unofficial numbers from the Montana Secretary of State’s Office, election officials have already accepted more than 39,000 of those, with more still to count. However, the state will still need to confirm there were a minimum number of signatures in 40 of Montana’s 100 legislative districts.
I-194, also called “the Montana Plan,” attempts to go around the federal Citizens United decision, which allowed corporations, unions and other “artificial persons” to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections as long as they are officially independent from campaigns. The measure is based on the argument that states have the authority to limit what powers they grant artificial persons, so it would attempt to redefine those granted powers to exclude political spending.
Mangan said the signature-gathering effort was done entirely by volunteers – about 500 of them trained for the task.
“Once we got going and Montanans saw exactly what we're doing, listening, seeing the problem, it was one of those – almost an epiphany moment,” he said. “Everybody's just excited to give us a hand.”
People in other states are now looking at the approach laid out in I-194. Earlier this year, Hawaii State Legislature passed and the state’s governor signed a bill to use the same strategy to prohibit corporate campaign spending. However, it’s already facing a lawsuit calling the new law a threat to free speech.
I-194 is a statutory initiative, meaning it has only the power of state law – and therefore, the Montana Legislature can make changes or even repeal it if it passes. The Transparent Election Initiative had proposed a constitutional amendment, CI-133, which would have required another public vote to change or undo. However, it was held up in court until recently, and Mangan said they had no realistic chance of getting the much higher number of signatures it would have taken to qualify it. He said he knew the statutory version would be more vulnerable, but he thought much would depend on how strong the support for it is.
“Particularly if we pass it like I think it could be passed, it'll send a strong message not only to legislators, but the entire country,” he said.
Opposition to I-194 is already starting to appear. This week, the Montana Chamber of Commerce released an open letter, encouraging people who’ve already signed the petition to withdraw their signatures – a step they can take until the end of the signature-gathering period on Friday.
The Chamber’s letter said the effect of I-194 would be to prevent Montana businesses and their advocates from weighing in on issues that affect them, but that it would do nothing to stop out-of-state billionaires from spending large amounts of money on elections.
“That is not reform,” the letter said. “That is a two-tiered system: free speech for the wealthy, silence for Montana businesses and the associations that represent them.”
MTN asked Mangan for his response.
“I applaud the Montana Chamber for wanting to end billionaire and millionaire spending – I'll be the first to endorse their plan,” he said.
The Chamber also pointed to a Montana Free Press article, which noted that the Transparent Election Initiative itself is a 501(c)(4) organization and therefore does not have to disclose its donors. TEI has passed on more than $100,000 to The Montana Plan, the official ballot issue committee for I-194, which does provide more disclosure about donors.
Mangan said only part of the work TEI does is on direct political involvement, with other activities including education and organizing in other states. He said, while federal law does not require them to disclose their donors, they have put a list of individual donors identified by first name, last initial and hometown on their website. Mangan said that was a compromise intended to provide transparency but to prevent the donors’ information being “used for nefarious purposes.”
One other proposed ballot measure has already claimed to have enough signatures to qualify for the November election: CI-132, which would amend the Montana Constitution to require that Montana continues choosing judges in nonpartisan elections.
The deadline for ballot measure sponsors to get signatures to county election offices is the end of the day Friday. Mangan said they already had signature-gathering events around the state planned for the next few days, and they will continue accepting signatures until the deadline.
