The State Supreme Court has turned-back a challenge to Initiative 194, the Transparent Elections Initiative or the “Montana Plan”. The Court’s decision was unanimous.
This frees-up the the group to seek signatures on their petition to place the Initiative on the November Ballot. Appearing on the KGEZ Good Morning Show, T-E-I Founder Jeff Mangan tells us they’d already started their petition drive. We’re they worried?
“No”, he said. He was confident the Court wouldn’t bar Montanans from signing a lawfully approved petition.
The lawsuit was filed by several organizations, including the Montana Chamber of Commerce–including the Kalispell and Billings Chambers and the Montana Mining Association. In their filing, they claim the measure goes far beyond limiting dark money. In an email to KGEZ 20-20 News, Kalispell Chamber CEO Lorraine Clarno tells us while she thinks the measure in well-intentioned, she fears unintended consequences. She writes, The challenge for us is that it would literally eliminate the voice of business altogether. As written, it will apply to all LLC’s doing business in Montana. It would restrict speech – regardless of size. We see the greatest challenge with this is on issues – not candidates. We wouldn’t have signed on if it was just impacting candidate “contributions”.
Mangan points-out that I-194 won’t limit individuals from donating or working on campaigns for both candidates or issues. He tells us the Initiative applies only to PAC’s.
In order to get the issue on the November ballot, a little over 60,000 petition signatures across at least 40 of the states 100 Legislative Districts need to be turned-in to the Secretary of State in June. Mangan tells us their effort will not use paid signature-gatherers, nor will they allow dark money into their efforts.
