21 June 2018 — 1754 mdt

Signatures for two statutory initiatives submitted for verification

The Lee newspapers are reporting that supporters of initiatives 185 (tobacco tax increase/expanded Medicaid desunsetting) and 186 (stricter controls on mining) have submitted to elections officials the petitions to place the issues on Montana’s 6 November general election ballot. Each initiative campaign reportedly submitted approximately 40,000 signatures; 25,468 valid signatures are required.

The submittal deadline is tomorrow. County elections officials must submit signature certifications to the Montana Secretary of State by the end of business on 20 July. (The 2018 ballot measure calendar.)

Are initiative campaigns using NDAs to enforce message discipline?

Yesterday, I reported that none of my sources responded to requests for updates on the signature gathering efforts. In late May, I reported having found a story on I-185 that was published in Medium. Otherwise, searches on Google came up empty. This leads me to wonder whether the backers of I-185 are requiring volunteers and staff alike to sign nondisclosure agreements, a disturbingly common practice in politics and business.

But requiring NDAs also is a deeply authoritarian practice that enforces secrecy and is designed to stifle debate. By the conventional wisdom, I-185 is considered a progressive ballot measure. It’s actually a deeply conservative ballot measure intended to preserve Montana’s bastardized expanded Medicaid (which employs the evil of private health insurance) and to extend the financial status quo at Montana’s hospitals, which are the big backers of I-185. Hospitals are authoritarian institutions that are obsessed with controlling their image and the debate over health care. They’re exactly the kind of institutions most likely to use NDAs to prevent leaks and intimidate volunteers and staff in initiative campaigns. Moreover, as I reported in May, Healthy Montana hired an initiative collecting firm, another type of business that likes zipped lips and probably promises to weld lips shut.

It’s disappointing and disturbing, especially in politics, that NDAs have become such a common practice. And it lowers my opinion of human nature that so many people want to be a part of something so badly that they either set aside their distaste for NDAs, or see nothing wrong with NDAs, or worst of all, like Trump and the Kochs, think NDAs are good things that should be used more often.