BILLINGS — A bipartisan group including former Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester made its pitch Saturday for a ballot initiative to ban corporate spending in Montana elections.  The proponents also included Jeff Mangan, a former Democrat-appointed commissioner of political practices; former Rep ublican Gov. Marc Racicot; and former independent candidate for Congress Gary Buchanan. They spoke to a crowd of about 800 in the Lincoln Center downtown. Mangan said all traveled “on their own dime” to speak at the event.  Organizers of the effort, dubbed The Montana Plan, said there is plenty of appetite for a ban, but getting it on the November ballot would take significant groundwork in a short timeframe. The event was hosted by the group Yellowstone Indivisible. Efforts to put the ban before voters have faced some initial hurdles. In January, the Montana Supreme Court agreed with Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s findings that the proposed constitutional initiative affected multiple parts of the state Constitution and therefore couldn’t be condensed into a single voting measure.  Plan architect Mangan quickly filed new language, which is now under review by the Legislative Services Division. The Attorney General’s office and the governor’s budget director must also complete reviews. The timing of those reviews will determine just how much of a crunch organizers face in getting the measure on the ballot. Mangan said in an interview before the public forum that petitioners would have at most 12 weeks — but possibly as little as two weeks — to gather enough signatures to qualify it for the November general election ballot. The constitutional initiative would need approximately 60,000 signatures, with representation from at least 40 legislative districts, in order to qualify. Mangan said the idea wasn’t to try out a new system for election spending in Montana but to restore the old one, which banned corporate cash and was in place until a U.S. Supreme Court ruling nullified it in 2010. “We forgot,” Mangan said. “People think it must have been years and years and years— decades. No. It’s only been since 2010 that this has happened. We can get back to the system in Montana that we were proud of and that we had before.”  The group repeatedly lamented how political spending has changed the dynamics between candidates and voters.  “You might ask yourself, ‘Well why does money in politics keep people from having town hall meetings or meetings eyeball to eyeball?” Tester said. “‘They still need to do that.’ Well, they really don’t. And the reason is — is if you’ve got enough money, you can buy your advertisements, you can buy the interviews, you can buy what’s going to be said in a town hall meeting. And then as the candidate or person, you control the message entirely and you don’t have to field difficult questions because you don’t know what’s coming. By the way — which is part of what democracy’s about.” Tester lost his Senate seat in 2024 to Republican Tim Sheehy in the most expensive race in state history, with more than $300 million spent, Montana Free Press previously reported. He served three terms.  Jeff Mangan, left, of the Transparent Election Initiative, speaks with Jon Tester, Marc Racicot and Gary Buchanan in Billings on Jan. 31, 2026, to promote a proposed ban on corporate political spending. Credit: Phoebe Tollefson / MTFP The Montana Plan would prohibit any incorporated entity operating in Montana from spending money to influence local, state or federal elections. It would apply to any group with a charter, including nonprofits, unions and for-profit companies, filed in the state.  Originally proposed as a constitutional ballot initiative, plan organizers have since submitted a statutory ballot initiative as a backup. A statutory initiative would change only state laws and not the Constitution. It has a lower threshold to qualify for the ballot. Supporters present The Montana Plan as a clever workaround to Citizens United, the watershed U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2010 that allowed for unlimited corporate spending in elections. While the court ruled that the government can’t block a corporation from exercising its right to free speech through political spending, the Montana Plan leaps backward to clarify that those rights don’t exist.  Buchanan, who owns the investment advisory firm Buchanan Capital in Billings, acknowledged that larger corporations will fight the proposal. But he predicted much of the business community would support it, saying they “don’t like being asked for money all the time.”  “If you’re a business … around campaign time, you get accosted by folks asking for money,” Buchanan said.   Mangan cited the cryptocurrency, energy, technology and finance industries as examples of big political spenders that needed to be reined in.  He said he expects opponents to argue the measure would hurt small businesses.  “And quite honestly, ladies and gentlemen, that’s poppycock,” Mangan said, noting Montanans, spurred by the corrupting influence of the Copper Kings, banned corporate spending in elections in 1912. Citizens United nullified that ban in 2010.  “You know what didn’t happen for those hundred years?” Mangan said. “Those corporations didn’t leave the state of Montana … They’re still here. So we already have a track record, even though they’ll be telling you something else.” The Montana Plan has attracted national attention. New York lawmakers have introduced legislation modeled after it. Mangan said he has fielded calls from California, Colorado and other interested states.  Racicot commended Mangan for his work developing The Montana Plan, calling it a “brilliant idea.” “Frankly, if we get this done, it’s going to spill over and be an example for every other state in the nation,” Racicot said. The post Tester, bipartisan group push plan to block corporate dark money in Montana politics appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less