Kalispell Chamber Backs Ballot Issue to Keep Courts Nonpartisan

The Kalispell Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a ballot initiative aimed at keeping Montana’s courts nonpartisan, the nonprofit behind the initiative, Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts, announced in a Thursday press release.

In the release, Lorraine Clarno, the chamber’s president, cited small businesses’ need for “fair, impartial, and consistent rulings” as part of the onus for the chamber jumping into the fray on yet another measure being put to voters this November.

“Business owners depend on the consistent application of the law so they can operate in a predictable environment that helps them create jobs and keep costs down,” Clarno said. “We need to keep politics out of our courts so our businesses can continue to contribute to the economic prosperity and sustainability of our community.”

Constitutional Initiative 132 (CI-132), the ballot measure the chamber is backing, states simply: “CI-132 amends the Montana Constitution to require that judicial elections remain nonpartisan.”

CI-132 qualified for the ballot after beating back a rewrite from the attorney general in December and collecting more than 100,000 signatures. The efforts to maintain the state’s nonpartisan judicial elections come on the heels of a legislative session where lawmakers defeated several attempts to attach partisan identifiers to judges’ names on the ballot, in part because of GOP concerns about justices having a liberal bias.

The Kalispell chamber’s endorsement of the measure marks the second time the nonprofit has thrown its weight either behind or against initiatives on the ballot this year. Clarno clarified in emailed comments the chamber is not pro-Democrat nor pro-Republican; rather, she said, it’s “pro-community and pro-business.”

While it is supporting CI-132, the chamber has opposed another ballot initiative, I-194, otherwise known as The Montana Plan. That initiative aims to limit “artificial persons” from contributing “anything of value” to candidates, political parties and state ballot issues.

I-194 has been widely lauded as a workaround to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which opened the door to corporate spending in politics and brought about an infusion of dark money into politics.

Clarno previously told the Beacon the Kalispell Chamber agrees with the premise of removing dark money from politics but raised concerns about the practical implications of I-194, arguing it could block the chamber from entering the political fray at all. Kalispell’s chamber has a track record of hosting candidate forums and of backing local funding asks, like Kalispell Public Schools’ 2025 high school levy. Under I-194, Clarno has claimed those efforts would no longer be a possibility.

This spring, the chamber took the extra step of signing onto a lawsuit alongside the Billings Chamber of Commerce and the state’s chamber in an attempt to stop I-194 from making it onto the ballot. That effort was ultimately unsuccessful, and voters will have an opportunity to weigh in on I-194 this fall as well. Other area chambers told the Beacon they don’t take stances on political issues and would neither support nor oppose I-194.

As the Flathead Valley’s largest business voice, however, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce and its endorsement — or lack thereof — of ballot issues could carry weight.

“The modern chamber isn’t trusted simply because it represents business. It is trusted because we connect business, government, education, nonprofits and citizens around community prosperity,” Clarno wrote in an email. “… Our greatest asset isn’t our events, our membership list or even our programs. It’s trust — the ability to bring people who don’t always agree around the same table, establish the facts, problem solve, identify common ground and move the community forward.”

Clarno explained the chamber made its decisions on supporting ballot measures through slightly different processes on CI-132 and I-194.

In the case of CI-132, the nonpartisan courts initiative, Clarno said the chamber’s Government Affairs Council saw a presentation on CI-132 at its monthly meeting in September, and recommended the chamber support the measure. That recommendation was then ratified by the Executive Committee and the chamber’s board of directors.

The process was different for I-194. Citing timing, Clarno wrote that the decision on I-194 went directly to the chamber’s Executive Committee for research and discussion.

She said at the moment, the chamber has no plans to weigh in on a third issue that will appear on voters’ ballots in the form of Constitutional Initiative 133, a measure aiming to protect the referendum and initiative process itself.

The chamber’s vote of support for CI-132 joins the voices of a slew of retired Montana Supreme Court and district court judges who have backed the measure, among others. The Montana Republican Party, however, has passed a resolution citing its opposition to CI-132.

[email protected]