Montana § 13-35-502 - Findings

§ 13-35-502. Findings

Findings. The people of the state of Montana find that: (1) since 1912, through passage of the Corrupt Practices Act by initiative, Montana has prohibited corporate contributions to and expenditures on candidate elections; (2) in 1996, by passage of Initiative No. 125, Montana prohibited corporations from using corporate funds to make contributions to or expenditures on ballot issue campaigns; (3) Montana's 1996 prohibition on corporate contributions to ballot issue campaigns was invalidated by Montana Chamber of Commerce v. Argenbright, 226 F.3d 1049 (2000). Montana's 1912 prohibition on corporate contributions to and expenditures on candidate elections is also being challenged under the holding of Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310, 130 S.Ct. 876 (2010). This decision equated the political speech rights of corporations with those of human beings. (4) in 2011 the Montana Supreme Court, in its decision, Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General, 2011 MT 328, upheld Montana's 1912 prohibition on corporate contributions to and expenditures on candidate campaigns, stating in its opinion as follows: (a) examples of well-financed corruption involving corporate money abound in Montana; (b) the corporate power that can be exerted with unlimited corporate political spending is still a vital interest to the people of Montana; (c) corporate independent spending on Montana ballot issues has far exceeded spending from other sources; (d) unlimited corporate money into candidate elections would irrevocably change the dynamic of local Montana political office races; (e) with the infusion of unlimited corporate money in support of or opposition to a targeted candidate, the average citizen candidate in Montana would be unable to compete against the corporate-sponsored candidate, and Montana citizens, who for over 100 years have made their modest election contributions meaningfully count, would be effectively shut out of the process; and (f) clearly the impact of unlimited corporate donations creates a dominating impact on the Montana political process and inevitably minimizes the impact of individual Montana citizens.