Our View: Montanans still favor campaign finance laws

Supporters of dark-money-financed elections in Montana were giddy with delight at the ruling issued earlier this week by Judge Kathy Seeley in Helena that struck down part of Initiative 166.

I-166 was passed by a 3-1 margin by voters last year. It declared what we thought was obvious, that in Montana, corporations were not people. It instructed Montana’s congressional delegation to work toward a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s dreadful Citizens United decision that allowed all kinds of dark money to slither into Montana’s political process.

Seeley struck down the provision that required the congressional delegation to work for a constitutional amendment, but allowed the rest of the law to remain in effect.

It’s too bad she made that decision, but despite the yippies coming from the dark money side, it does not gut the decision passed overwhelmingly by voters.

First, every member of the delegation is keenly aware of the position of Montana voters. Corporations are not people, and voters have the right to determine who may contribute what to political campaigns.

And despite the massive power dark money groups have, they don’t have the right to demand that Montana voters change their mind.

The damage to the dark money groups has already been done.

The people overwhelmingly ruled that the flow of money into our political system should be regulated. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that three-quarters of Montana’s voters should have no say in the matter, but in the long run of history, the people will win out.

Recent events have proven that this is not a partisan battle. In the last session of the Montana Legislature, some of the strongest efforts in favor of campaign reform came from Republicans, some of whom were targeted in primaries by the dark money cabal.

Light is still the best disinfectant for politics. The people of Montana agree with that statement. Courts so far do not.

Judge Seeley’s decision upholds the later statement, but it can’t overturn the first.