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.
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.
I’m ok with limiting union and nonprofit contributions too. Those are just more workaround avenues for billionaire money at the end of the day.
This amplifies the effect of every individual voter’s dollar in the race tenfold. And THAT matters way more.
Exactly. But it also doesn’t apply to “editorial” content… so that’s something we’ll have to watch out for.
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.)