The Montana Plan (I-194) is now being prepared for your ballot, placed there by over 50,000 Montanans and more than 600 all-volunteer signature gatherers who gave their time because they believe in something simple: elections should belong to the people, not to corporations hiding behind anonymous checkbooks. I’ll note this was the first all-volunteer signature gathering effort in decades.
That bothers some very powerful people. And they are doing everything they can to stop you.
Don’t be surprised. This has been going on for a hundred years.
Special interests and those who benefit from corrupt political spending don’t give up quietly. The Montana Chamber and those they purport to represent have made that clear. Their opposition campaign is a textbook political playbook — misinformation, gaslighting, and the construction of straw men designed to protect the very actors our initiative targets.
Here is what that playbook has looked like so far:
- Legal obstruction — They sued the state to block signature collection. The courts rejected it.
- Signature withdrawal campaigns — They tried to convince Montanans who signed the petition that they didn’t understand what they were signing. They did.
- Small business scare tactics — Their current messaging claims I-194 will silence small business owners. It will not.
The Small Business Lie
Let me be direct: The Montana Plan does not target small business owners. It levels the playing field between your neighbor’s hardware store and a multinational corporation with unlimited anonymous cash.
Under I-194, business owners retain the full right to write personal checks in support of local candidates and issues. Businesses may continue to educate the public and advocate for their industry on relevant issues, before and after any election. What changes is this: corporations will no longer be permitted to spend money to support or oppose candidates or ballot issues. That’s it. That is the measure. Simple. Clear.
The Dark Money Distortion
Here’s the one that genuinely surprises me: our opponents have called The Montana Plan itself “dark money.” I’ll let that sink in. While other initiatives are spending MILLIONS, and millions of anonymous dark money was just spent in our primary, they are calling 13K American and Montana small donors ‘dark’ for giving an average of $25 bucks. Shameful.
The Transparent Election Initiative voluntarily discloses its individual donors. Every contributor to the I-194 ballot issue committee is publicly reported. We challenge our opponents to match that level of transparency. They won’t.
And on the subject of billionaires – yes, our opponents warn that billionaires will start spending in Montana elections if I-194 passes. You and I both know the truth: billionaires already spend in Montana elections. They just do it anonymously. The Montana Plan I-194 would ensure that every dollar flowing into a Montana political campaign, whether it’s from your neighbor down the street or a hedge fund manager in New York City, is fully and publicly disclosed.
The billionaire from New York doesn’t want his or her name attached to the deeply negative, divisive ads we see every election cycle. That’s the whole point of dark money. I-194 ends that.
If the Montana Chamber is genuinely concerned about outside billionaire influence in our elections, I extend a public invitation right now: join us. Help pass The Montana Plan I-194 and let Montanans decide. Then we’ll pass the Maine proposal to limit superPAC spending. The fact that they won’t tell you everything about whose interests they are actually protecting.
Thank You, Montana
For a moment, I want to set the opposition aside and speak directly to you.
Thank you.
You proved in 2026 that an all-volunteer signature gathering effort is still possible. You proved that Montanans still have the grit, fierce independence, and the civic determination to build something from the ground up, without corporate dollars, without dark money, and without a political machine telling you what to do.
That is Montana. That has always been Montana.
Our state has a proud history of standing up to concentrated power — from the Copper Kings to today’s anonymous billionaires. I-194 is the next chapter in that story. It returns our elections to individual citizens — your voice, your name, your vote.
The Montana Plan is not complicated. Corporations cannot spend money to support or oppose candidates or ballot issues. Only individuals can. That’s the whole measure. If you believe elections should be decided by people and not by artificial persons and billionaires hiding their identities, then I-194 is your initiative.
Montana has always led. Let’s lead again.
Jeff Mangan is the Founder of the Transparent Election Initiative (TEI) and the lead proponent of I-194, The Montana Plan. Mangan served as Montana’s 12th Commissioner of Political Practices from 2017-2023.