{"id":20230,"date":"2017-11-15T14:52:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T21:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=20230"},"modified":"2017-11-15T18:40:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T01:40:14","slug":"attacks-on-campaign-finance-laws-paved-way-for-gianforte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/11\/attacks-on-campaign-finance-laws-paved-way-for-gianforte\/","title":{"rendered":"Attacks on campaign finance laws paved way for Gianforte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gianforte\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Then-private citizen Greg Gianforte delivered the\u00a0commencement address at Rocky Mountain College in May 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n

In May, on the eve of Greg Gianforte\u2019s special congressional election, the Montana politician \u201cbody-slammed<\/a>\u201d inquiring news reporter\u00a0Ben Jacobs<\/a>\u00a0and began \u201cpunching<\/a>\u201d him, according to Jacobs and other witnesses.<\/p>\n

Medics treated the battered journalist, and the county sheriff cited Gianforte for misdemeanor assault. Gianforte\u2019s unprovoked flash of World Wrestling Entertainment-style violence \u2014 which also prompted\u00a0key<\/a>\u00a0newspapers<\/a>\u00a0to rescind their endorsements \u2014 appeared to torpedo the GOP\u2019s bid to retain a Republican-red seat during a contentious special election.<\/p>\n

Except it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Gianforte\u00a0won<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and took his seat in Congress the week after he pleaded guilty to his crime, bolstered by about $2.4 million in all-but-unrestricted \u201csuper PAC\u201d cash that overwhelmed his erstwhile opponent, Democrat\u00a0Rob Quist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gianforte himself had helped seed the laissez-faire political money system that made his victory possible earlier in the decade, having contributed significant funds through his nonprofit Gianforte Family Charitable Trust to several conservative organizations leading legal efforts to dismantle federal campaign finance regulations, a\u00a0Center for Public Integrity<\/a>\u00a0investigation reveals.<\/p>\n

The Alliance Defending Freedom, which over the years has\u00a0fought campaign finance limits<\/a>\u00a0in cases such as\u00a0Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission<\/a>, is a prime example. Gianforte\u2019s nonprofit has given the group, which does not publicly disclose its donors, $133,500 from 2008 through 2015, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of federal tax filings indicates.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Citizens United\u00a0decision gave rise to super PACs \u2014 political committees that may raise unlimited amounts of corporate cash and spend it on elections like his.<\/p>\n

Gianforte, a\u00a0tech entrepreneur<\/a>\u00a0and one of Montana\u2019s wealthiest residents, is among a small but wealthy group of political kingmakers, including Charles and David Koch and Richard Uihlein, who\u2019ve quietly bankrolled a long legal assault on the nation’s campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Gianforte, whose office declined multiple requests from the Center for Public Integrity for comment, is among Republican members of Congress actively campaigning for another term in November 2018. His re-election campaign in fact\u00a0began in June<\/a>, even before he took his seat in Congress to\u00a0replace<\/a>\u00a0Ryan Zinke, whom President Donald Trump tapped as secretary of the interior.<\/p>\n

During Montana\u2019s special congressional election, Gianforte\u2019s campaign\u00a0raised\u00a0<\/a>about $3.5 million, not counting $1.5 million Gianforte loaned his own campaign. Quist\u2019s campaign raised even more.<\/p>\n

But on a parallel track, the House Speaker Paul Ryan-backed Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC single-handedly invested another $2.4 million into Gianforte\u2019s special election campaign, with the vast majority of that money going toward advertisements attacking\u00a0Quist<\/a>, who had but a fraction of such super PAC aid.<\/p>\n

Expect the Congressional Leadership Fund, which did not return requests for comment, to be back in 2018, if it sees fit. Other super PACs could certainly rush to Gianforte\u2019s aid, too.<\/p>\n

Bopp picked as counsel<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In an appropriate twist, Gianforte’s campaign has enlisted the services of the Bopp Law Firm, paying nearly $5,000 for legal services this year.\u00a0Jim Bopp, the firm\u2019s namesake, was a driving legal force behind several key campaign finance rulings this century, including\u00a0Citizens United<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Bopp said one of his associates who lives in Bozeman, Montana, is aiding Gianforte\u2019s campaign. In addition, Gianforte\u2019s campaign has so far also spent\u00a0almost $47,000<\/a>\u00a0for legal services from Foley & Lardner, the law firm where campaign finance deregulation champion Cleta Mitchell practices.<\/p>\n

Gianforte\u2019s potential congressional opponents are hardly thrilled by these developments.<\/p>\n

John Heenan, a lawyer from Billings, Montana, who\u2019s seeking the Democratic nomination to face Gianforte, says the congressman\u2019s approach to campaign money runs counter to his constituents\u2019 wishes.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Montana\u2019s Supreme Court upheld the state\u2019s 99-year-old Corrupt Practices Act, which banned corporations from using money to influence state elections \u2014 a decision that stems from wealthy \u201ccopper kings\u201d\u00a0buying their way<\/a>\u00a0into state office during the 1910s.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0in 2012<\/a>, the U.S. Supreme Court\u00a0overturned<\/a>\u00a0the Montana court\u2019s ruling, much to the chagrin of many Montanans. In response, about three-fourths of Montana voters, as part of a nonbinding, statewide referendum,\u00a0voiced their disapproval<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Citizens United\u00a0decision.<\/p>\n

Gianforte \u201chas taken zero action to fulfill the direction of Montana voters to overturn\u00a0Citizens United\u00a0<\/em>and get \u2018dark money\u2019 out of politics. \u2026 People are sick and tired of all this \u2018dark money,\u2019\u201d Heenan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDark money<\/a>\u201d is shorthand for money used for political purposes that can\u2019t be traced to a root source. Some politically active 501(c)(4) \u201csocial welfare\u201d nonprofits routinely trade in it, but super PACs may use it, too, when accepting contributions from entities that don\u2019t disclose their donors.<\/p>\n

The pro-Gianforte Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, for example, has this year\u00a0raised more than $6 million<\/a>\u00a0from the American Action Network, a conservative nonprofit that doesn\u2019t volunteer information about its own funders.<\/p>\n

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The Congressional Leadership Fund has this year also accepted six-figure corporate contributions from\u00a0Hillwood Development Company<\/a>, private prison firm GEO Corrections Holdings, tobacco company Reynolds American and oil giants Chevron, Valero and Occidental Petroleum, according to\u00a0FEC data compiled<\/a>\u00a0by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.<\/p>\n

Montana state Rep.\u00a0Tom Woods<\/a>\u00a0of Bozeman, who\u2019s also seeking the Democratic nod, argues Gianforte\u2019s money-in-politics philosophy is wholly self-serving.<\/p>\n

\u201cGianforte and Trump want to maintain this system because it benefits them. It’s a government that\u2019s not for regular people,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n

Johnson Amendment<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Election aside, the Gianforte Family Charitable Trust has consistently given money to a pair of religious organizations that want the government to loosen restrictions on tax-exempt churches\u2019 ability to wade into electoral politics.<\/p>\n

This debate is now squarely in Congress\u2019 domain: Some Republican lawmakers are angling to kill the\u00a0Johnson Amendment<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the part of the federal tax code that prevents houses of worship from supporting or opposing political candidates \u2014 as part of the GOP\u2019s current tax reform efforts.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the Johnson Amendment fear its demise would prompt some churches to\u00a0function like super PACs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., has been fighting against an appropriations rider that would make it harder for the IRS to investigate organizations accused of breaking the rules of the amendment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real concern that these nefarious dark money groups, super PACs and the like could essentially launder money through houses of worship and religious organizations,\u201d she told the Center for Public Integrity.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not how Alliance Defending Freedom sees the matter.<\/p>\n

Erik Stanley, the group\u2019s senior counsel, said the Johnson Amendment was unconstitutional from the time it was passed and still is. The issue of \u201cdark money<\/a>\u201d in churches wouldn\u2019t apply under the Free Speech Fairness Act, which has been introduced\u00a0in the House and Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat bill allows for non-profits to speak freely if the speech is at no added cost to the organization and is in the ordinary and normal course of the organization\u2019s activities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom\u2019s \u201cPulpit Freedom Sundays<\/a>\u201d initiative has for years encouraged religious leaders \u201cto exercise their constitutionally protected freedom to speak truth into every area of life from the pulpit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gianforte\u2019s family trust gave $50,000 to the Alliance Defending Freedom, and $20,000 to Family Research Council, in 2015, according to tax reports. The Family Research Council\u00a0argues<\/a>\u00a0that the Johnson Amendment\u2019s effect is \u201cto suppress pulpit speech\u201d and that it \u201cis almost certainly an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

This piece was produced by the\u00a0Center for Public Integrity<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit investigative news organization\u00a0in Washington D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In May, on the eve of Greg Gianforte\u2019s special congressional election, the Montana politician \u201cbody-slammed\u201d inquiring news reporter\u00a0Ben Jacobs\u00a0and began \u201cpunching\u201d him, according to Jacobs and other witnesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":17950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14,1],"tags":[6458,335],"class_list":["post-20230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-center-for-public-integrity","tag-greg-gianforte","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20230"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20235,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20230\/revisions\/20235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}