Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
LV firm helped party get on ballot in Montana
Who paid for signature initiative still mystery
HELENA, Mont. — Whoever bankrolled the effort to qualify the Montana Green Party for this year’s state ballot may get away with remaining unknown because the state’s campaign disclosure laws do not address anonymous groups funding certain signature gatherers.
The party was allowed to field candidates in the June primary after a Las Vegas political consulting company called Advanced Micro Targeting turned in more than 9,400 voter signatures gathered in February and March.
The Greens needed 5,000 voter signatures spread among 34 state House districts to qualify for political party ballot access by petition.
But it’s a mystery who hired Advanced Micro Targeting and the 13 signature-gatherers who pushed the Green Party across the finish line before the state’s filing deadline. The Green Party did not hire Advanced Micro Targeting. It posted its petition online, put out a call for help and hoped for the best.
Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan ruled in July that Advanced Micro Targeting was not required to report its spending because it was not advocating on behalf of a candidate. Instead, Mangan ordered the Montana Green Party to report the spending by Aug. 24.
As of Friday, three weeks after the deadline, the Green Party had not responded to the order. Party coordinator Danielle Breck said Wednesday the party does not know who paid the company or how much was spent.
The controversy comes just three years after Montana reformed its campaign finance laws. Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and legislative leaders have touted the new law’s transparency and disclosure requirements as among the toughest in the nation.
Montana also updated campaign finance laws after paid signature gatherers were used in support of ballot measures in 2006. State law now requires the disclosure of expenses related to gathering petition signatures for an initiative, referendum or a constitutional convention. But it does not address payments made for gathering signatures to qualify minority parties for the ballot.
“These days, campaign finance disclosure is a game of whack-amole,” University of Montana law professor Anthony Johnstone said Friday. “That mole got whacked, but this mole popped up.”
It’s a loophole that the 2019 Montana Legislature should tighten by requiring companies like Advanced Micro Targeting to disclose their paid signature-gathering efforts for party qualification petitions, Johnstone said.
The Green Party and its candidates have since been kicked off the Montana ballot after a state judge ruled about 80 of the signatures that were accepted by county election administrators were invalid, leaving it short of the number required in several House districts.
“It is outrageous Advanced Micro Targeting won’t tell Montanans who hired them or how much they spent in their attempt to interfere in our democracy,” Nancy Keenan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, said in a statement Wednesday.