3 August 2018 — 1158 mdt

“Dark Money, Green Party” and practical advice for Montana’s Greens

Who paid Advanced Micro Targeting to gather signatures to qualify Montana’s Green Party for the 2018 ballot? That’s still unknown, but reporters at KGBA, the University of Montana’s student radio station, are digging into the subject and publishing their findings in a series of podcasts. The first, Dark Money, Green Party, available on the station’s website, interviews two of the signature gathers who worked for AMT. It’s well worth your listening time.

Montana’s Green Party was kicked off the ballot by Montana District Judge James Reynolds, who ruled that enough signatures accepted by voting registrars were in fact invalid and that therefore the signature minimums were not met in several legislative districts. Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton is appealing Reynolds’ decision to the Montana Supreme Court, but I think the higher court will uphold Reynolds.

In a parallel development, Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices ruled (decision PDF) that the Green Party, which in the trial in district court testified it didn’t know of AMT’s involvement, and didn’t know who paid AMT, should have reported AMT’s expenditures as an inkind contribution. The Green Party now must find a way to comply with COPP’s decision.

COPP’s decision may not be intended to squeeze the Green Party, but it has that practical effect. It’s possible to estimate the value of AMT’s work by using publicly available information, but if that isn’t good enough for COPP, the Green Party must either sweet talk AMT into revealing its client or sue AMT. I doubt the Green Party has the resources to prosecute a lawsuit.

Would Montana’s Democratic Party help fund an effort by the Greens to shine a light on the dark money received by AMT? I doubt it. The MDP wants not just to destroy the MGP, but to obliterate it, and to prevent the MGP from ever rising again.

Memo to Montana’s Greens: start small

Successful political parties begin at the grassroots, at the bottom of the ballot. Instead of trying to qualify the MDP statewide, Greens should try to qualify for the ballot at the legislative district and city council level. In particular, they should try to qualify Greens in legislative and city council districts in which Democrats run unopposed or without serious opposition; districts in Missoula, Bozeman, Helena, and possibly in Great Falls and Billings.