Montana corporate spending initiative faces final signature deadline

Helena’s business lobby, reform activists and statewide political donors are heading into a fight that could decide who gets more power in Lewis and Clark County campaigns if Montana voters ever see Initiative 194 on the November ballot. The proposal, known as The Montana Plan, would try to tighten limits on corporate political spending, a change that could reshape how money flows into city, county and statewide races centered in the Capitol.

Supporters entered the final stretch with momentum. Ballotpedia reported that the campaign turned in 50,000 signatures to county officials on June 16 for verification, well above the 30,121 valid signatures needed for an initiated state statute. Montana also requires petitioners to meet a district distribution test, collecting signatures equal to 5% of qualified electors in at least one-third of the state’s 100 legislative districts, so the measure still had to clear both the numerical and geographic hurdles before it could reach voters.

The campaign was filed on Jan. 8, 2026, and cleared for signature gathering on March 10, after Attorney General Austin Knudsen rejected an earlier constitutional version in October 2025 as legally insufficient. Knudsen said that draft contained too many separate issues and raised concerns under the state constitution’s separate-vote requirement and federal precedent. Transparent Election Initiative then refilled a narrower version, which was later found legally sufficient.

The measure has reopened an old Montana argument about whether corporate election spending is protected speech or an influence that voters should again restrict. State law findings say Montana has barred corporate contributions and expenditures in candidate elections since 1912, when voters approved the Corrupt Practices Act, and has also prohibited corporations from using general treasury funds in ballot-issue campaigns since 1996 through Initiative No. 125. Supporters say the proposal revives that tradition in the post-Citizens United era.

The fight has also split powerful figures and institutions. Transparent Election Initiative founder Jeff Mangan is the main sponsor, and former governors Mark Racicot and Steve Bullock, along with former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, have publicly backed it. Ballotpedia said former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg endorsed the effort in May, calling it a potential blueprint for centering citizen voices over special interests. Opponents led by the Montana Chamber of Commerce say the measure would silence businesses and nonprofits in the political process, and a coalition that included the Montana Mining Association, Montana Stockgrowers Association, Montana Petroleum Association, Montana Trucking Association, Montana Contractors Association, Treasure State Resource Association, and the chambers in Billings and Kalispell tried to block it before the Montana Supreme Court dismissed the challenge on April 1.