{"id":21512,"date":"2018-02-20T17:01:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21512"},"modified":"2018-02-20T17:07:17","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T00:07:17","slug":"panelists-warn-of-dark-money-influence-on-state-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/02\/panelists-warn-of-dark-money-influence-on-state-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Panelists warn of dark money influence on state politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dark\"<\/a>

Film still from 'Dark Money'<\/p>

\u201cDark Money,\u201d a documentary about the state\u2019s fight against corporate campaign spending and the decline of mainstream newspapers, is showing in Missoula as part of this year\u2019s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.<\/p><\/div>\n

If Montanans don\u2019t \u201cown\u201d their representatives in Congress and the state Legislature, someone else will, a University of Montana law professor and dark money opponent said Monday night.<\/p>\n

Anthony Johnstone worked alongside Gov. Steve Bullock, who was then the state attorney general, when Montana attempted to defend its longtime ban on corporate campaign contributions.\u00a0The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with the state, and the dark money floodgates opened. The financing\u2019s sources are never revealed, obscured behind dummy organizations and complex money trails. But the intent is clear: to \u201cbuy\u201d politicians\u2019 votes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it is incumbent upon every resident to get involved, Johnstone told the audience at a screening of the new Montana-centric documentary, \u201cDark Money.\u201d Only\u00a0widespread citizen involvement can counter the massive corporate spending on this, and other states\u2019, elections, he said.<\/p>\n

\n
Sen. Tester injured, misses screening<\/h5>\n

Sen. Jon Tester missed Monday night\u2019s screening of \u201cDark Money\u201d because of an accident on his Big Sandy farm a day earlier, where he slipped and fell.<\/p>\n

The mishap landed Tester in the emergency room with 16 stitches, the University Center Theater audience was told. He\u2019s doing well, came the message, but the doctor wanted him to stay at home for a day and recuperate.<\/p>\n

Early on, the film includes a scene where Tester is working on his farm with his wife, talking about the importance of \u201ccitizen legislators\u201d who still work for a living outside of their legislating.<\/p>\n

In a statement read to the packed-house audience, Tester said Montanans have seen the \u201cdespicable influence\u201d of dark money on elections \u2013 from the influence of the early day Copper Kings to the modern-day Koch brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop the flow of dark money into our elections,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n

Tester is expected to resume his regular schedule of events in Helena on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cGet involved. Give money,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not dirty money if you support good candidates. You need to make sure that you own your candidates. If everyone is involved, then dark money doesn\u2019t have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0\u00a0packed house filled the University Center Theater for the film\u2019s second Montana showing, part of this year\u2019s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Directed by Kimberly Reed, the film traces the long history of corporate influence over Montana politics \u2014 beginning with the Anaconda Co.\u2019s domination of the Legislature, congressional representatives and the state\u2019s major newspapers.<\/p>\n

Montana voters rebelled, adopting the 1912 Corrupt Practices Act that prohibited corporations from contributing to political campaigns.<\/p>\n

And that was the law until 2010, when \u2014 in its Citizens United decision \u2014 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot restrict election spending by corporations, nonprofits or labor unions. To restrict those contributions, the court said, would violate the First Amendment\u2019s free speech guarantee.<\/p>\n

Of the states that prohibited corporate campaign contributions, only Montana defended its ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe excesses of corporations, they\u2019re in your face in Montana,\u201d the film instructs. The evidence is as prevalent today as 100 years ago.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, the state was not successful in its campaign against corporate contributions. By 2012, Montana voters were inundated by dark money attack ads and mailings. Simultaneously, the state\u2019s major newspapers began cutting their political and legislative coverage, laying off the most experienced journalists at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

In the film, American Tradition Partnership attorney Jim Brown said he doesn\u2019t believe there is too much money in politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Supreme Court got it right,\u201d he said. Brown is among the attorneys who successfully argued in favor of unlimited corporate spending.<\/p>\n

But now-Gov. Bullock told the filmmakers that he believes the ATP wants to get rid of all regulation of election spending: the contribution limits, corporate restrictions, even truth-in-advertising laws. The attack continues, he warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cDark money groups refuse to tell us who they are or what they do,\u201d Bullock said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know who funds these groups and probably never will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>A corporation sends money to a dark money PAC, often via several intermediary companies. Then the dark money PAC purchases attack ads and mails disparaging postcards or pamphlets to voters \u2014 often just days before the election \u2014 attacking a candidate targeted for defeat.<\/p>\n

When the desired candidate wins, they \u201cowe\u201d the corporation, usually having signed a pledge to win the PAC\u2019s support.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Frank Garner, R-Kalispell, said during a panel discussion following the screening that he was targeted by dark money groups because he refused to sign pledges supporting specific causes, corporations or special interest groups.<\/p>\n

The dark money groups even hosted town hall meetings to attack him and other, similarly moderate Republicans who are willing to work with Democrats and find common ground, Garner said.<\/p>\n

Rather than defeat Garner, the dark money PACs made an enemy dedicated to fighting the influence of dark money in Montana elections.<\/p>\n

The audience heard, too, from Billings attorney Gene Jarussi, who served as the state\u2019s special prosecutor for 14 state legislators accused of illegally conspiring with the national Right to Work PAC to defeat their primary election opponents. All 14, he said, had signed a pledge to support the right to work, guns, tax cuts and to oppose abortion.<\/p>\n

Three of the legislators were protected by the statute of limitations and continue to serve in the Montana Legislature, Jarussi said. The remaining ones either settled with the state out of court, lost in court or await trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our state,\u201d he said. \u201cMake sure you know where your candidate stands on our commissioner of political practices. Make sure he or she supports that office, because it is under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montana is the only state that has a post overseeing the investigation and prosecution of campaign violations. Dark money groups \u201ccan\u2019t wait to dismantle it,\u201d said Jarussi.<\/p>\n

And finally, he advised, \u201cbecome a candidate yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have the ability, consider running. If you can do that, it is one heck of a contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherry Devlin is a longtime Missoula journalist who writes\u00a0occasional stories for\u00a0Missoula Current<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0where this story originally appeared.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Montanans don\u2019t \u201cown\u201d their representatives in Congress and the state Legislature, someone else will, a University of Montana law professor and dark money opponent said Monday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":21513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[3289,1676,5017,297,63],"class_list":["post-21512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-anthony-johnstone","tag-citizens-united","tag-dark-money","tag-gene-jarussi","tag-university-of-montana","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21512","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\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21512"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21518,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21512\/revisions\/21518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}