HELENA — For more than a decade, Montana has been at the center of debates about money in politics. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a century-old state law banning corporations from directly spending money in political campaigns. Now, an organization is proposing a novel legal approach that they argue could circumvent that ruling.
“I want to move back to a time where elections were elections, campaigns were campaigns, you knew what was being said, you knew who was running, you had the ability to ask them questions,” said Jeff Mangan. “I want to get back to that, and I'm going to do everything that I darn well can to ensure that that happens.”
(Watch the video for more on how supporters aim to get around the Citizens United decision.)
Mangan formerly served as Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices, the state’s top campaign cop. Now, he’s leading the Transparent Election Initiative. On Wednesday, he held a video conference to announce what he called “The Montana Plan,” a campaign to put a ballot measure before voters in 2026 that would seek to redefine corporations’ powers so they don’t include political spending.
Mangan argued states have long held authority to limit what powers they grant corporations, but they haven’t used that power for decades.
During Wednesday’s conference, Mangan was joined by former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and former Gov. Marc Racicot.
“I don't think I have run into one of my fellow citizens in the state of Montana and got engaged in a conversation about politics where the notion about spending, money in politics, has not been a matter of grave concern and great disdain,” said Racicot, who served two terms as a Republican in the 1990s but has in recent years been increasingly critical of and criticized by the party.
Former Gov. Steve Bullock was also scheduled to speak during the event, but was unable to attend.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision said political speech is protected under the First Amendment, even when that speech comes from a corporation. The effect was to allow corporations to make unlimited political expenditures as long as they are officially independent of a campaign.
In 2012, the Court heard a case from the conservative group American Tradition Partnership, challenging Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act. The law, initially passed in 1912, prohibited corporations from spending on elections. In a brief ruling, the Court held 5-4 that the law was clearly invalid based on the Citizens United precedent, and that the state hadn’t shown any reason to distinguish the two cases.
Since that time, Montana has experienced a series of campaigns with massive spending and a huge volume of political ads. Several of them involved Tester, a Democrat. The 2024 U.S. Senate election saw more than $250 million in spending, as current Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy defeated Tester.
“You might say, ‘Well, geez, Jon, you're mad because you got outspent,’” Tester said Wednesday. “No, I'm told that my side actually put more money out there than their side. The fact is that this is not good for democracy, and that's why this needs to change.”
Mangan said the language for this proposal is still being written. He acknowledged it’s certain to face legal challenges, but argued using the state’s authority to control corporations’ powers would not be the same as limiting the rights Citizens United said they were entitled to. He said it would be a new legal question the Supreme Court hasn’t answered yet.
“Why hasn't anybody done this or thought about this before? I think we just got complacent,” said Mangan. “I think Citizens United passed and in some states, including Montana – and when I was commissioner, some of our disclosure and things got shut down because of the freedom of speech argument – I think we just resigned to the fact that that wasn't going to change. We didn't look for other innovative solutions to the problem. This is an innovative solution.”
Ballot issue campaigns in Montana have also become expensive in recent years. MTN asked Mangan how this campaign would seek to raise money – and if that could open them to charges that they’re not practicing what they preach.
“I'm not naive enough to think we can do it all-volunteer; I know we're going to have to raise money, but that's how I perceive and how I'd like to see it go,” he said. “That being said, I'm an open book. I want this to be transparent. Even though under the current law, we could raise money and not provide transparency to what that money is and who's giving money to to the campaign or to the C4, we're going to make all that public, fully transparent. I'm putting my money where my mouth is on that, and I'm going to overreport.”
In 2012, Montana voters approved Initiative 166, a response to Citizens United which said corporations should not be entitled to constitutional rights and called for prohibiting corporate campaign expenditures. It received almost three-quarters support, but it didn’t have any practical impact.
