A third glossy mailer just landed in my mailbox from that same shadowy political outfit based in Washington, D.C. According to secret money, their hand-picked golden boy is the absolute best guy to shine the shoes of the folks in charge.
These secret billionaire clubs want us to believe that a gridlocked Congress desperately needs yet another yes-man to help Montanans thrive. Let’s be honest. No amount of fancy advertising is going to convince anyone with a morsel of common sense that we need to keep funding the circus, that chaos is the governing that makes local lives better.
Life in the Treasure State got so damn expensive that most of us would much rather see Washington focus on the cost of insurance, groceries and housing, and not whether some guy on the ballot played a mean game of field hockey back in 1999.
If secret money sounds like a familiar nightmare, there’s good reason. Over a hundred years ago, mining barons like William Clark handed out $1,000 bills to buy a U.S. Senate seat as if it were a prized heifer at the state fair.
Montana citizens got tired of the blatant fraud and passed the Corrupt Practices Act in 1912. It was a trailblazing initiative putting a strict ban on corporate spending in state elections. Fast forward a hundred years and the U.S. Supreme Court threw our century-old ban into the shredder. They opened the floodgates and a torrent of corporate cash flooded state politics.
To out-of-state billionaires, buying a Montana election is cheaper than tuning up the old yacht. By pouring a meager million bucks into our small media market, shadowy national networks can plot a Senate win without ever leaving a paper trail.
They’re trying to fool us again with pop-up political nonprofits with local-sounding names. It’s like putting lipstick on that old political pig, marketing billionaire tech agendas as grassroots local advocacy. Last year, the same secret money bankrolled failed initiatives to help out-of-state values bypass conservative lawmakers.
Dark money loves to fight. In tight races, partisans use untraceable cash to prop up candidates while directing resources away from the parties or rivals. Shadowy local-sounding political action committees run expensive attack ads framing and complaining about candidates. Even before officially putting on their running shoes, billionaire cash is used to tarnish candidates.
The ironic part is that the well-paid political consultants pulling the strings don’t much care if a candidate has an elephant or donkey next to their name. They get rich off both parties. Their need to pay for new and ongoing staff or just make car payments is as great as anyone.
Shadow groups and dark-money consultants have become so ridiculously powerful that the actual candidates, and even the political parties themselves, are just riding in the backseat. Dark money has its pointed fingers in everything from local zoning and funding lawsuits to lobbying and picking our politicians. Some local zoning advocacy is awkwardly funded by dark money billionaires from overseas. It makes no sense.
So, how do we rein in the consultants and shadow parties when state lawmakers themselves won’t help? Same as always, it’s up to local citizens. Enter Jeff Mangan and the Montana Plan.
The citizen initiative that Mangan proposed is simple. It rewrites state law to say that spending money in elections isn’t a privilege given to corporations in Montana.
Getting Montana Supreme Court approval to run this as a constitutional amendment is what gave corporate lobbyists nightmares. It’s no longer a legislative band-aid. It’s Montanan’s powerful resolve, meant to spark a nationwide rebellion against secret billionaire spending.
Leaders from across the political spectrum see the light. Former U.S. Senator Jon Tester, an independent-minded Democrat, noted that Montanans don’t wait for Washington to fix what’s broken. Tester says that by harnessing our sovereign power over corporate charters, we can lead a political movement that helps sideline dark money everywhere.
Christopher Burke, the business owner of Morning Glory Coffee and Tea, said the Montana Plan gives us a real chance to level the playing field, ensuring that every Montanan has their voice heard, not just those with the deepest pockets.
Even Marc Racicot, our former Republican governor, pointed out that federal gridlock doesn’t need to bind our state. Racicot says that by declining to give corporations political-spending powers from the outset, Montana can chart a constitutional course which others may follow.
Bold, effective, and citizen-inspired reform is still possible across partisan lines. It takes courage from citizens who seek change, and a desire to return our government back to the people.
Dark cash is flooding into Montana paying for door knockers, canvassers, TV, mailers and essentially running the campaigns of favorite sons who’ll cater favors if they make it to D.C.
Today, Wednesday, April 29 at 5 p.m., the Beer Buds and Big Sky Podcast will host the Transparency Election Initiative at the Whitefish Middle School auditorium, with live questions after airing the PBS film directed by Kimberly Reed called Dark Money, which illustrates the powerful influence of corporate money in Montana politics.
Montana isn’t for sale. No matter how many mailers they cram into our boxes, no matter how many TV ads dark money airs during Jeopardy time, this is still our state. Only Montana citizens can remind the paid consultants and secret billionaires from New York to Switzerland, that this is our home. A place we live and raise our kids, and not their political playground.