'The Montana Plan'

TEI Files The Montana Plan as a Constitutional Initiative and Statutory Initiative

“Montanans deserve a fair shot at voting on whether corporations should be allowed to dominate our political process. Today’s filings provide a pathway.”

Dark Money Film- Livingston Screening | Q&A February 12

The film takes viewers to Montana frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide to follow an intrepid local journalist working to expose the real-life impacts of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

Happy New Year! We Have a Very Busy 2026 Starting in January!

Wisconsin Governor's Race Sets Fundraising Records

Virtual Only Event - TEI’s The Montana Plan January 15 6PM MT

Wednesday, January 14th at 6PM MT, register via zoom

Community Event | Billings | The Montana Plan January 31st

Saturday, January 31st at 1PM at the Lincoln Center with special guests Marc Racicot, Jon Tester, and Gary Buchanan scheduled to appear

NYT | Nearly $900 Million in Secret Flowed into 2024 Presidential Campaigns

Despite the gargantuan sums, the donors to these nonprofit groups will almost certainly never be revealed

Covington | MegaPACS the Next Frontier of SuperPACS

Not only are larger corporations making sizeable contributions to super PACs, but corporations are now banding together to support even larger super PACs focused on the interests of a specific industry

Opinion | A Birthday Present for Montana We Can All Give

There's now a birthday present for Montana being considered by the Montana Supreme Court, to become a Ballot Initiative in 2026. The Montana Plan

HCR | Simple and Beautiful

Simple & Beautiful...outside the box thinking

Move to Amend Statement of Support of The Montana Plan

The Initiative represents an important democratic step forward, both culturally and legally

Does that look like a PERSON to you?

Grounded Podcast | The Montana Plan

We broke it all down with Mangan, including the legal hurdles still facing the initiative, what opponents are saying, and how to get an effort like this started in other states

Robert Reich | How to get rid of Citizens United

Hopefully, Montanans will lead the way.

Team Montana Plan v Goliath

Sunshine, Sunshine, Sunshine!

Pete Buttigieg Addressing Money and Power

A very conservative place like Montana is trying to address this through attention to what a corporation can and can't do, because that's actually decided at the state level

Truthout | Montana Has an Ambitious Plan to End Dark Money in Elections

That plan is the basis of the Transparent Election Initiative’s constitutional amendment as a ballot measure to be put before Montana voters in 2026. The measure asks voters whether or not their state should redefine corporate charters to disallow spending in elections.

The Montana Plan Explainer

An updated notebookLM presentation of The Montana Plan

TEI Files Appeal of MT AG Legal Sufficiency Determination with Montana Supreme Court

On November 3, 2025, the Transparent Election Initiative filed our appeal of the Montana AG’s legal sufficiency decision with the Montana Supreme Court.

The Lever | The Montana Plan to Kill Citizens United

Transparent Election Initiative, Montana’s new proposal to purge dark money from the state, which could potentially rewrite national politics

Issue One | New polling illuminates how the Supreme Court got Citizens United wrong

New polling commissioned by Issue One and conducted this month by YouGov reveals that overwhelming majorities of Americans — and Montanans — broadly believe that large-scale political spending by corporations, dark money groups, and wealthy donors undermines democracy, creates the appearance of corruption, and reduces trust in government.

Daily Montanan | National poll shows support for Montana-based solution to Citizens United

Mangan stressed that although the issues and even solutions have varied, limiting the influence of money in politics is part of the state’s historical tradition, stretching back to 1912 when Montana voters demanded the “Corrupt Practices Act” which gave citizens more political power even at a time of Copper Kings and a notoriously weak first state constitution. “There’s a consistency there because it treats everyone the same,” Mangan said. “No gimmicks, no loopholes.”

The Corporate Power Reset that makes Citizens United Irrelevant

to strike down a state’s decision to not grant a power to corporations, courts would need to unmake a vast expanse of settled precedent establishing that corporations have only the powers bestowed by state law.

Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance | Transparent Election Initiative

Corporations have only the powers that states give them—no more. States stopped being choosy about the powers they granted to their corporations in the mid-1800s. But every single state retained the authority to be as choosy as they like. Every single state retains the authority to decide to no longer grant its corporations the power to spend in politics.

TEI | Montana Constitutional Initiative with Annotations