25 May 2018 — 1559 mdt

The Flathead’s big spenders on ballot measures &
I-185 ballot sponsor hire out-of-state signature gathering firm

There are two, Yes! for Flathead Farms and Water, which is promoting Flathead County Initiative 17-10, the Egan Slough zoning measure, and the Kalispell Regional Medical Center, Inc. Incidental Committee, which is supporting Initiative 185, the measure slapping a big tax on tobacco to fund expanded Medicaid.

YFFW’s amended C-6 form for 4 May 2018 reports $48,856 in receipts, $35,719 in expenditures, and $13,137 in the bank. The biggest contributions were $41,000 from Kalispell’s Steve Moore and $6,670 from Kalispell’s Amy Waller. The largest expenditures were $26,000 to Harstad Strategic Research, Inc., a polling firm in Boulder, CO, used by Barack Obama and Jon Tester, and $8,000 to M + R Strategic Services, a Washington, DC, firm whose clients include the Smithsonian, Planned Parenthood, and Greenpeace. YFFW still owes $4,000 to M + R.

KRMCIC’s amended C-4 form dated 1 May 2018 reports $90,620 in receipts ($63,943 from HealthCenter Northwest, L.L.C. Incidental Committee, and $26,677 from North Valley Hospital), $250,000 in expenditures, and a bank balance of minus $159,380. The quarter-million-dollar donation went to the MHA Incidental Committee on 28 March 2018 “…in support of ballot initiative to increase tobacco taxes to support health care programs.”

The next finance reports for committees are due on 29 May, but may not be available online before the primary election on 5 June.

I-185’s supporters hire out-of-state signature gathering firm

Healthy Montana for I-185’s amended C-6 form for 23 May 2017 reports two $25,000 payments to Direct Action Partners, Inc., of Portland, OR, for “signature gathering activities.” DAP claims it hires locally.

The Montana Democratic Party, which supports I-185, has been raising hell about out-of-state involvement in the signature gathering effort that put the Green Party on Montana’s ballot. So far, to my knowledge, the MDP has not indicated displeasure with Healthy Montana’s decision to hire an out-of-state signature gathering firm. One of Direct Action's services, incidentally, is “Opposition Observation.”

Not all signatures for I-185 are being gathered by Direct Action Partners, Inc. According to a story in Medium yesterday, Team Work Makes the Dream Work: I-185 Signature Gathering is in Full Swing!, Montana Women Vote is collecting signatures.

The signature gathering window closes on 22 June. As a practical matter petitions must be submitted to county elections officials a week earlier to allow for verification.

Are signatures for I-185 being gathered in the Flathead?

Given the importance of the initiative, and the amount of money behind it, I expected to have a clipboard thrust in my face after I voted in the school election on 8 May. But no one was gathering signatures at the Flathead County Fairgrounds for I-185 or any other initiative. School election turnout almost always is low, but every signature counts and that would have been an opportunity to practice the art of gathering signatures as well as gathering a few signatures.