HELENA — Montana senators heard a bill Wednesday aimed at broadening the scope of laws on campaign finance disclosures.
Republican Sen. Duane Ankney’s Senate Bill 289 would require corporations to disclose political contributions favoring or opposing candidates and ballot issues in Montana.
“This bill is simple,” Ankney said. “If you can contribute, you’re going to report.”
The proposal would shed light on dark money exempted from disclosures, said Andy Huff, chief legal counsel to Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.
An organization can skirt laws requiring the disclosure of political contributions, Huff said, if its purpose and federal tax designation categorizes the group as being dedicated to education or advocacy.
The measure introduced in the Senate State Administration Committee would require corporations, political committees, unions and individual people to report monetary and in-kind contributions that fund advertisements, communications and other activities for or against political candidates and issues.
“In order to be able to assess their message, you need to know who they are, how much they’re spending and who’s behind them,” Huff said of anonymous ads.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in a 2010 decision that limiting corporations from making independent expenditures — contributions not made directly to a candidate — was unconstitutional.
After the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, anonymous money started pouring into elections, Huff said.
Chris Gallus, an attorney in Helena, said in his opposition to the bill that it would chill free speech.
“It’s a bandwagon that’s got certainly some broken wheels,” Gallus said. “It’s filled with a lot of false promises, as are some of the other reforms that are being proposed.”
SB 289 is one of four campaign-finance measures backed this session by Ankney and Bullock. Senate Bill 267, also introduced Wednesday, would require corporations and unions to state that they’ve made contributions. House Bill 406 was tabled on Tuesday, and no action has been taken on House Bill 409.
In addition to expanding disclosures, Ankney’s proposal would also require that the attribution “paid for by” be included on political advertisements in the state.
The bill gives the commissioner of political practices — a person appointed by the governor to oversee the enforcement of campaign finance laws — the discretion to implement other rules “to fully disclose the disposition of funds used to support or oppose candidates or issues.” Opponent said that gives too much power to an historically contentious position.
“It kind of sounds to me like an accident waiting to happen,” said Sen. Doug Kary, a Republican from Billings.
Ankney said campaign violations vary greatly and the commissioner, who already has rulemaking discretion, needs to be able to address specific problems that arise in the future.
Opponents to the bill said other definitions and provisions in the proposal are overly broad, including what counts as communications requiring reporting and exemptions given to news organizations including blogs.
“What I heard in opposition is the fox,” Ankney said. “And he’s saying ‘Don’t latch that gate to the chicken house because, it’s all right, I won’t get in.’ “