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Montanans Blaze New Trail in Fight Against Corporate and Dark Money Election Spending
by Michael Beckel, Director of Money in Politics Reform at Issue One
A proposed ballot initiative this year known as The Montana Plan (Initiative 194) represents an innovative and impactful way to take back our democracy following the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in 2010. The Montana Plan is a breakthrough, constitutionally sound legal strategy to combat the deep-pocketed corporate and special interests that are spending massive amounts of money to secretly influence elections.
I’ve been following money in politics for nearly 20 years. In 2008, I worked in Philipsburg at the nonpartisan voter education organization Project Vote Smart, where I helped run a voter education hotline for voters in Montana and across the country. When callers asked about who funded candidates, we shared information from OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit that helps people follow the money in elections. In 2009, I joined the team at OpenSecrets.org, and as the group’s money-in-politics reporter, I attended the oral arguments in the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case. Now, I’m the director of money in politics reform at Issue One, a pro-democracy nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that works with Democrats, Republicans, and independents to reduce the undue influence of big money in politics.
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate how transparency in campaign spending is a prerequisite for government accountability. However, so-called political “dark money” — a.k.a., money spent by anonymous donors — makes it impossible to follow the money in elections. In 2024, more than $1.9 billion in dark money was spent in federal elections — including tens of millions of dollars in Montana.
That’s why I’ve been closely monitoring — and supporting — The Montana Plan ballot initiative. The Montana Plan is a critical step in fighting back against the deluge of secret spending in elections that we’ve seen since Citizens United. This ballot initiative is one of the most creative and important ideas I’ve seen to end dark money and corporate spending in elections.
The Montana Plan would leverage the fact that states have the authority to define what powers corporations possess as artificial persons. This proposal doesn’t infringe upon any federal laws. It would rewrite the law from which corporate charters draw their authority and would stop giving corporations the power to spend unlimited sums of money in elections in the first place.
Montanans have always been people who thrive on the frontier, balancing a desire to conserve some of the most beautiful parts of the wilderness with an ability to innovate and create systems that benefit everyone. I see these traits in this ballot initiative as well.
By supporting this ballot initiative, Montana voters have the opportunity to blaze a new trail in the fight against corporate and dark money spending in elections and preserve a form of democracy that actually works on behalf of all of us, not just the wealthy and the well-connected. Where Montana leads, I hope others will follow.
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