Randy White (not THAT Randy White)

🚨Montana voters just delivered a 65% rebuke to the post-Citizens United free-for-all. Initiative 194, the Montana Plan, strips corporations, dark-money nonprofits, unions, and other “artificial persons” of the power to spend on elections. It takes effect January 1. The response from the state Republican Party? A federal lawsuit filed within hours, joined by the Frontier Institute and Montana Family Foundation, demanding the courts nullify the people’s will. This is not principle. It is protection of the donor class. The Montana GOP openly admits it relies on corporate money for independent expenditures to elect its candidates. The same party that lectures about “election integrity” and “the will of the voters” when it suits them is now arguing that the First Amendment requires unlimited corporate political power—even after Montanans explicitly voted to revoke it. They are represented by the Institute for Free Speech, a group whose entire existence is dedicated to dismantling any limit on big-money influence. Among those leading the charge to protect the corporate checkbook is Montana GOP Chair Art Wittich. A jury found he accepted and failed to report nearly $20,000 in illegal corporate contributions during his 2010 primary (upheld by the Montana Supreme Court, resulting in a $68,000 fine), though a later ethics complaint was dismissed. Montana Chief Disciplinary Counsel Michael Cotter’s office did not publicly explain the reason for dropping the complaint. He is joined by Kendall Cotton of the Frontier Institute, with lawyer Owen Yeates of the Institute for Free Speech arguing that the First Amendment somehow requires silencing the will of 65% of Montana voters. Republicans call buying politicians “free speech.” Voters call it corruption. Republicans know exactly who they work for, and it’s not you.