Montana Code 13-35-502. Findings
13-35-502. Findings. The people of the state of Montana find that:
Terms Used In Montana Code 13-35-502
- Ballot: means a paper ballot counted manually or a paper ballot counted by a machine, such as an optical scan system or other technology that automatically tabulates votes cast by processing the paper ballots. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Candidate: means :
(a)an individual who has filed a declaration or petition for nomination, acceptance of nomination, or appointment as a candidate for public office as required by law;
(b)for the purposes of chapter 35, 36, or 37, an individual who has solicited or received and retained contributions, made expenditures, or given consent to an individual, organization, political party, or committee to solicit or receive and retain contributions or make expenditures on the individual's behalf to secure nomination or election to any office at any time, whether or not the office for which the individual will seek nomination or election is known when the:
(i)solicitation is made;
(ii)contribution is received and retained; or
(iii)expenditure is made; or
(c)an officeholder who is the subject of a recall election. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Election: means a general, special, or primary election held pursuant to the requirements of state law, regardless of the time or purpose. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Individual: means a human being. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- issue: means a proposal submitted to the people at an election for their approval or rejection, including but not limited to an initiative, referendum, proposed constitutional amendment, recall question, school levy question, bond issue question, or ballot question. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
(1)since 1912, through passage of the Corrupt Practices Act by initiative, Montana has prohibited corporate contributions to and expenditures on candidate elections;
(2)in 1996, by passage of Initiative No. 125, Montana prohibited corporations from using corporate funds to make contributions to or expenditures on ballot issue campaigns;
(3)Montana’s 1996 prohibition on corporate contributions to ballot issue campaigns was invalidated by Montana Chamber of Commerce v. Argenbright, 226 F.3d 1049 (2000). Montana’s 1912 prohibition on corporate contributions to and expenditures on candidate elections is also being challenged under the holding of Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310, 130 S.Ct. 876 (2010). This decision equated the political speech rights of corporations with those of human beings.
(4)in 2011 the Montana Supreme Court, in its decision, Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General, 2011 MT 328, upheld Montana’s 1912 prohibition on corporate contributions to and expenditures on candidate campaigns, stating in its opinion as follows:
(a)examples of well-financed corruption involving corporate money abound in Montana;
(b)the corporate power that can be exerted with unlimited corporate political spending is still a vital interest to the people of Montana;
(c)corporate independent spending on Montana ballot issues has far exceeded spending from other sources;
(d)unlimited corporate money into candidate elections would irrevocably change the dynamic of local Montana political office races;
(e)with the infusion of unlimited corporate money in support of or opposition to a targeted candidate, the average citizen candidate in Montana would be unable to compete against the corporate-sponsored candidate, and Montana citizens, who for over 100 years have made their modest election contributions meaningfully count, would be effectively shut out of the process; and
(f)clearly the impact of unlimited corporate donations creates a dominating impact on the Montana political process and inevitably minimizes the impact of individual Montana citizens.