Follow the money

By MIKE DENNISON - IR State Bureau - 07/08/06
HELENA — A Montana-based political group that has spent $1 million on initiative campaigns here and elsewhere is being challenged legally by a Helena attorney, who may try to force disclosure of its financial backers.

Attorney Jonathan Motl, a veteran of many ballot-measure campaigns in Montana, said Friday he believes Montanans in Action may be skirting campaign-finance laws by concealing its donors.

He said the group “appears to have no existence other than as a conduit for ballot committee money,’’ and therefore should reveal the source of its money.

To challenge the group, Motl last month formed his own opposing political committee and demanded Montanans in Action open its books — a demand allowed under Montana law.

Trevis Butcher, a Winifred farmer/rancher, conservative political activist and treasurer of Montanans in Action, met Friday afternoon with Motl and turned over 350 pages of documents from the group and related political committees.

Motl said he’ll review the documents and decide whether to file a complaint with the state Office of Political Practices, claiming that Montanans in Action is a political committee that must reveal its source of funds.

“Montana law demands that donations (to political campaigns) have to be made in the name of the true donor,’’ Motl said. “You can’t disguise it by running it through another entity.’’

Butcher said Friday he’s confident that Montanans in Action is on firm legal ground, and that, as a nonprofit educational/political group, does not have to reveal its financial backers.

“Montanans in Action is here to stay,’’ he said. “We want to impact Montana in a very positive way. We have a three-year plan put together and have several issues we’re working on.’’

The group plans to educate the public and state policymakers on private property rights and government-spending issues, he said, among other things.

Yet since its founding earlier this year, Montanans in Action has been acting mainly as the major funder of three proposed ballot measures in Montana: Constitutional initiatives 97 and 98 and Initiative 154.

CI-97 is a constitutional limit on state spending; CI-98 would make it easier to attempt to recall judges; I-154 says property owners can demand and obtain payment from the government if government action reduces the value of their property.

All three measures appear headed for certification for the November ballot in Montana.

Through early June, Montanans in Action reported spending more than $300,000 to help qualify for the ballot CI-97, CI-98 and I-154.

In May, Montanans in Action also gave $600,000 to the California group backing an initiative similar to I-154.

Montanans in Action is organized as a nonprofit, 501-c-4 group, which does not have to reveal its sources of money. It does have to report its spending on political activity, however.

It has the same address as Butcher’s in Winifred, a tiny farming community in central Montana, and has no staff.

Motl said after reading news coverage of the group earlier this spring, he became concerned that it was formed to deliberately obscure financing of initiatives, which in Montana are supposed to have full disclosure of their financial backing.

Motl is a longtime defender of Montana’s citizen initiative process, and said if someone is abusing the process to achieve its political goals, the process is vulnerable to harm.

“They’re harming something that is greater than any one issue,’’ he said. “They could create among (policymakers) a movement to change and restrict the initiative process.’’

In June, Motl formed a group called Montanans for Fair Initiatives. He said the group’s sole purpose is to oppose CI-97, CI-98 and I-154, thereby giving it the legal right to demand to inspect the finances of committees supporting those measures.

He made that demand last month and Butcher met Friday with Motl to turn over documents from Montanans in Action and the three ballot committees formed to campaign respectively for CI-97, CI-98 and I-154.

As of June 5, these ballot committees had received nearly all of their money from Montanans in Action. The committees’ next financial reports are due Monday.

Butcher said Montanans in Action is prepared to show that it’s not just a political committee, and has been formed for legitimate public education purposes.

He also suggested that Motl is being paid by groups opposing CI-97 and the other measures, to harass a group that supporting the measures.

Motl said that’s not true, and that he’s doing the work strictly on a volunteer basis, because of his concern about preserving the integrity of the initiative process.

[For the record, Not in Montana is not involved in Jon Motl's case.]