Voters in Montana on Tuesday delivered a major blow to big moneyed interests by overwhelmingly passing a ballot initiative barring corporate cash from political campaigns in the state.
With 87% of votes counted as of Wednesday morning, Montana Constitutional Initiative 194 has ++received++ support from more than 65% of voters, with just 35% registering opposition.
Continue to kick ass Montana!
— Things I had no idea I would be typing when I woke up this morning
Great choice and now all states do the same, ranked choice voting too!
Ranked Choice is a slight improvement over our current system, but it was first invented in 1785 and has some inherent flaws. Flaws that can be exploited by bad actors to subvert elections.
May I suggest STAR. It was designed in 2014, and makes it much harder to subvert an election.
Citizens United has to go!!! Way to go, Montana,
This is the kind of ballot measures that should be put to more states. When there’s direct democracy about single issues people are very progressive. Removing corporate cash from elections will be something everyone can get behind.
Instead states like Arizona fill the ballot with hateful anti trans measures. And my state just wants to hurt the poor and immigrants even more with “amendments to save america”. All written by Republicans of course.
What a waste.
Color me pessimistic and mostly a dumbass but how will this stop things? Like people can still donate. It just won’t be anonymous (and even by the letter of the bill that’s kind of up in the air too). But will that stop anything? As we’ve already seen, tons of billionaires don’t really give a crap if everyone knows they donated a bajillion dollars to stop puppies and kittens from getting free food. They’re still doing it and still making a huge difference in politics.
I guess I just don’t see a huge difference in changing a campaign donation from “Bill’s Furniture Emporium donated $3 million to Carl Ass’ campaign fund” to “the ceo of Bill’s Furniture Emporium donated $3 million to Carl Ass’ campaign fund”
I think this is definitely a step in the right direction but I don’t think this is the crippling blow to oligarchy some people seem to think it is
Its not a panacea but a step in the right direction. The rich and powerful have always had an out sized influence on American democracy but after citizens united its been much more. Any steps to curb it will be useful, especially at the state level since it is usually easier than national level. But at this point it might even happen at the national level. It isn’t a cure all but a step in the right direction
Nice! Now that the proof of concept has been doubly established, everyone needs to do this.
Dually?
Hawaii I think?
Moore noted that the initiative passed by Montana is similar to a law passed in Hawaii earlier this year that classified corporations as “artificial persons” who do not have a constitutional right to make political donations.
(from the article)
I remember that!
It does also limit the ability of Unions and nonprofits to help with campaigns, but I guess that’s fine, because the vast majority of union dues is used to fund political campaigns, and if they’re not allowed to do that anymore, union dues may not keep rising.
Unions also generally have access to more individual donors that are willing to have their donations at least partially directed by the organization.
The “dark money” PACs are usually formed because some rich person(s) want(s) to wield more power than they can by directly convincing other individuals to direct their donations, even when they (illegally) offer to and do reimburse other individuals for their donations.
When you are having to funnel donations via individuals (legally or not), the number of individuals often matters more than the amount of available funding. (And, that’s a good thing, even for unions.)
We also kept State Supreme Court elections nonpartisan (I-132) which I like. Largely because that particular initiative sprung from Republican groups whining about “activist” judges.
We even managed to avoid electing only assholes to state and federal office. It’s mostly assholes. But it’s not all assholes.
“A yes vote on I-194 means that only real people—not corporations, unions, trade associations, nonprofits, or groups with anonymous donors—are allowed to spend money in Montana elections,”
Wait, but that doesn’t stop CEOs and Billionaires from just donating personally? I suppose it will be more transparent this way at the very least though. Also, I’ll admit I’m pretty economically illiterate so I could simply just not understand, lol
Personal donations are fine if they’re capped though
I think the measure in Hawaii does that or caps it, this might be the only part they could get through
This is a feel-good measure that is easily circumvented, an 8-year-old lemonade stand owner could get around it.
There’s only one solution, a general fund that bOtH pArTiEs use to run campaigns. If you run of money, well, that means you suck, pay for it out of pocket, you hacks. You don’t have a problem trading stocks to make a fortune, figure it out.
Amazing news, hope it spreads
I mean, fucking duh. Who the fuck among normal people votes for money IN politics??? I’ll never understand humans.
This is fantastic news! Good for them! I hope more states follow!!!
Here comes the supremos to equate money with speech.
Such a horribly drawn equivalence. Money isn’t speech. Money is volume. You’re free to say what you want. Having more money just means you’re able to say it louder.
Huzzah! Huzzah!
Next let’s pass similar federal legislation!
But corp money will still make its way into the discourse via SuperPACs, won’t it.
This is a good step…but not enough
