Ridding Montana of Black Money is the aim of a group of former state officials who have just submitted their proposed initiative for the 2026 election. Former Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangen, founder of the initiative, made the formal submission to Secretary of State Christie Jacobsen last Friday afternoon.
Appearing on the KGEZ Good Morning Show, former Sen. Jon Tester, one of the advocates of the initiative, tells us the method is to create a constitutional Amendment to prohibit Corporations in Montana to contribute to a candidate’s campaign. Former Govs. Mark Racicot and Steve Bullock have joined Tester and Mangen in an attempt to take the big money out of our state’s elections.
There are some interesting logistics in their quest to remove Dark Money from the election process, not the least of which is conducting the petition signing without taking any out-of-state Dark Money, when their opponents will likely flood the state with just that…Dark Money. They say the root of all this is the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United Decision, saying political speech is protested under the First Amendment, even when that speech comes from a corporation. “Corporations are people” is the claim of that decision.
The next step is clearing the ballot language by the Attorney General’s Office.
