The most interesting strategic plan to save the nation from a complete political takeover by the wealthy lies in each state’s control over its corporations. Corporations and corporate charters are primarily state entities and are governed by state laws.
States permit them, regulate them, and can pass laws to limit their behavior and activities.
Corporations are also federal entities to the extent that the Federal SEC regulates publicly traded corporations to protect investors, maintain fair markets, and facilitate capital formation. But our interest here concerns the state regulation of corporations.
The state of Montana has a history of money-driven political corruption which seems to have continued up to the present day. Last year’s U.S. Senate race in Montana saw Republican Tim Sheehy beat incumbent Democrat Jon Tester, with more than $275 million spent in a state of roughly 1.2 million people. Outside corporate money that is untraceable has made states with resource wealth and few people like Montana and Alaska attractive targets for political takeover by big money interests.
To fix the problem, there is a proposed change to the Montana state constitution to stop corporations from contributing to political races. Individuals could still contribute but their names would be made public. The goal is transparency.
The legal hurdle is making sure such changes to corporate charters is that such changes do not limit free speech and violate the First Amendment.
While politicians seem to like unlimited, unnamed contributions to their campaigns and have not fought against Citizen United, 75% of the population is against the campaign finance rules as they now stand. So, this must be a citizen’s initiative involving collections of signatures, etc. to introduce a change in the Montana state constitution.
The effects of such a change could be enormous and nationwide. As the Bozeman Daily Chronical writes:
“Montana requires out-of-state firms to adhere to in-state law, which would effectively delegate the new restriction to any entity moving money around inside Montana.”
This seems to mean that any corporation that does business in the state of Montana would be required to stop giving money to politicians and PACS that spend money in the state regardless of the state in which they are incorporated.
While passing the Montana law proposal would be significant and make Montana’s elections more fair, if some larger states like New York or Illinois were to follow Montana making similar corporate law changes, I believe that the Citizen’s United ruling would be effectively dead and cease to permit dark money to rule the nation’s political landscape.
The amendment is expected to appear on the ballot in 2026 and potentially take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
I ask others to consider supporting the TEI (Transparent Election Initiative), a nonprofit founded by Jeff Mangan, a former Montana state commissioner of political practices.
Mangan has called his organization’s plan “a whole different section of law” that “basically bypasses Citizens United.”
As transparentelection.org states,” While this approach would undoubtedly face constitutional challenges, it complies with Supreme Court case law. Unlike campaign finance regulations that restrict rights, this approach focuses on not granting powers in the first place.”
