Posted: November 29, 2010 at 7:31 am
Bought, but by Whom?
Who are the moneybags that own the new Republican legislature? For starters, at least a half-million dollars was spent by a group called Western Tradition Partnership was directly Republican legislative candidates to help them get elected in 2010. Let’s assume that 20 races were targeted by these funds. That’s $25,000 per race. To put that in perspective, I’m told the average legislative candidate in Montana usually raises $10-15 grand for his or her own campaign.
Western Tradition Partnership is a group founded by his Royal Shadiness John Sinrud. We know this because an investigation by Dennis Unsworth, the Political Practices Commissioner, uncovered a power-point presentation belonging to a WTP operative, showing some sort of flow-chart of money and some rough calculations and budget items, and indicating a plan to spend half a million bucks in Montana on legislative races. What we don’t know is who funds the Western Tradition Partnership, though we may soon find out. At the end of Unsworth’s investigation, he found WTP guilty of breaking Montana campaign laws by not revealing where its money comes from. WTP claimed, in its defense, that its hundreds of negative mailers and other advertisements, blasted out during the closing weeks of the campaign and trashing democratic legislative candidates in every way imaginable, was not “campaign related” activity but rather “issue advocacy”. “Issue-related” organizations can set themselves up as non-profit entities under federal law. This means they can hide their donors as long as each donor gives less than $25,000. The only thing they may not do is “directly advocate” for or against a candidate.
The Commissioner’s ruling, however, means that the state of Montana has found that the WTP’s activity crosses the line from issue-advocacy to campaign activity under state law. So we may yet see the WTP’s books as the State of Montana continues its prosecution of these jerks. That would be a fun thing. We will then know who, exactly, owns the new Republican legislature.
Right now WTP has taken the offensive, suing the State, the Attorney General, and just about everyone else, claiming that Unsworth had no power to investigate them and claiming that Montana’s campaign finance laws are unconstitutional. Bullock should step up and slam these A-holes.
If I was a gambler I would bet that WTP is some corporate or some rich east or west coast outfit. Same as what Travis Butcher tried to do back in 2006.
And the unions do exactly the same in support of democratic candidates. And now the biggest out-of-state union thug, Ted Dick, is in charge of the Montana Democratic Party!
Also, Max funnels his MILLIONS in PAC money to democrats throughout the state (through the MT Democratic Party).
There is money involved in politics. Wow. Ground breaking news there Cowgirl. You are truly a super sleuth.
Wrong-you mean Max funnels his millions to Nevada to help Harry Reid in to save his own committee chairmanship while letting montana candidates hang out to dry.
Um, except the workers (unions) have way less cash than the CEOs and COOs et al.
button valley has a great post about this…. http://buttonvalley.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/rewriting-the-code-of-the-west/
Yep – unions have a LOT less money to spend than corporate interests (just compare what the US Chamber spends versus labor) and they have more red-tape, rules and accountability for how they spend their money (thanks to many past years of Repub efforts to hobble them). Its not even close – and last year’s SC ruling makes it even worse. Sorry brainz not soooo very full.
You know maybe to get private cash out of our politics maybe we ought to have public funding of campaigns. It would get rid of both corporate cash and union cash, plus lets limit the ammount of time on campaings, for example it wasn’t even a week after the 2010 elections and we in Montana already have announced candidates for Governor and US Senator in 2012. I get emails from Senator Jon Tester atleast twice a week asking for money for his 2012 re election bid. Now don’t get me wrong I love Jon Tester but he was asking for election cash before I even had a chance to get my 2010 deer shot or my 2010 Thanksgiving turkey out of the freezer, how can he be foucused on governing. And its both sides that do this I’m sure Republicans and even Denny Rehberg is raising money for either his next re election bid or his election bid to a different office. All that I am saying is maybe by have public funding of political campaigns we can get rid of corporate and union and whatever else kind of cash, and shorten the election cycle and allow our public servats of all political strips to be public servats and do the will of the people.
If you examine their facebook page, (Western Partnership), it is filled with phony friends. Miscellaneous groups, girls looking for guys, women, etc.
They seek 35.00 from people to join. If you decipher the, ” big words”, and can actually comprehend what they are saying ….well, it is horrifying. They are counting on their abilities to deceive the people who will be conned into following them. Some of their statement, mission, examples:- 1.Eliminating roadblocks to private energy solutions, -2. Fighting massive expansion of federal control of private and state water resources…beg your pardon? These guys want the right to control our water resources..very frightening, the ignorant may not understand and give them their ways… They are out for nothing but their own pockets..Nothing else..another statement from them 3.- Creating legislative review by subjecting all significant changes in pollution standards to review and statutory approval…so they want to be able to go anywhere, take any resources and pollute while doing it. I think this is very frightening. very, very sad .
It is total astroturf. They have no constituency except big out of state donors that want to hide their tracks.
Something I learned in my 1996 legislative run in Yellowstone County: Unions have little sway in the Democratic Party, and are only tolerated because they are useful. They will put up some money (not much, as they are basically penny-ante players), man the phone banks, and put a gloss on the Dems as the “party of the people.” The only people I saw hanging out at the union hall were actual working people, with a few Democrats (notably Baucus) dropping by around election time.
Too bad you ran way back in the 1900′s when you only had MPEA, MEA and AFSCME to help you out.
Since then SEIU has forced itself into the state with truckloads of money and other resources. Tester, Schweitzer, and a bunch of legislators are owned by them.
Keep up with the times there Mark.
How many members does SEIU have in Montana? What % of the work force is unionized now compared to 1996? What publicity campaigns did unions run in the state behind anonymous names versus corporations doing the same?
You don’t know, I’ll bet. Google away. And there is no known answer to the last one.
SEIU, like ACORN, is a boogieman used to frighten you.
Booooogey booogey!!! OK now, clean your shorts, Google, and report back.
I don’t need to use Google. I quite aware of SEIU’s activities in this state……but you, quite obviously, are not.
SEIU didn’t go overboard this election like they did in 2008. Yet they still spent gobs of money. Including last minute postcards across the state which advocated for democrats. They were lovely postcards where all they changed was the candidate’s pictures and names from one district to the next.
Frankly, when I say truckloads of money, that’s exactly what I mean.
However, SEIU, for all it’s money and effort still hasn’t had much organizing success in Montana. One would think that given Ted Dick’s lack of success with SEIU that he would have no chance of becoming the top dog Dem in all of Montana. Good luck with that! Hee Haw!
That’s your answer? Colored postcards?
Diabolical!
What’s a few postcards compared to the barrage of prime time television ads in support of CI-105.
Nothing on Kendal and the success of purse gate?
yep…unions usually contribute more in people-power to canvas, call and wear the campaign than total money. It’s important – but its a fraction of the power, money and influence by the corporate/lobbyworld.
All one needs to ask themselves: If unions were so darn strong, influential and all-powerful that they can do anything by getting out the checkbook…why have they been on the losing end of almost every legislative and legal decision for decades? If they could buy presidencies – they would. If they could buy legislators that would turn the tide against the corporate erosion of their power and the hefty regulatory bureaucracy they face – they would. They barely/rarely could even at their apex decades ago – how could they now when their numbers and coffers are a fraction of that?
Unions, like socialists, ACORN, health care and so many other things are the right’s boogeymen to keep the troops and line and focused in their indignation (and paying no attention to that man/men behind the curtain!!)
First off unions are a very important part of the Democratic party both at the state and local and at the national level. But so are environmental groups, womens rights groups, small business and small family farmers and ranchers, and young people as well. We are a big tent party, same as the Republicans who have oil companies working hand in hand with Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Now with all that said I say this remove the corporate money from politics and remove the union money, remove the gay money and remove the James Dobson money, lets go to a system of govenrment funding of election campaigns. Here’s how it could work, if you are a member of a political party that got more then 20% of the vote in a major statewide race during the priesidental election and it could be any statewide race, your statewide candidates get lets say 500k your legislative candidates get 2k and your local candidates for say county sheriff or commissioner or even city dog catcher get 1k. They are allowed to start campaigning after September 1st the Labor day holiday, of the election year they are running in, this way you eliminate the never ending campaings that last 2years or more. For primaries we would allow individual contributions of say $25 dollars per person for legislative and local candidates and $100 per person for statewide candidates, this would include Governor, US Senator, US Representative or Representatives if we were to get another house seat, secretary of state, attorney general, ect ect. The reason for the smaller limits is that you really can’t be accused of buying or selling influence for the price of a steak dinner on statewide races or a pizza and beer night with legislative and local races, plus we would allow the candidates to spend their own money as well. That means if Ted Turner were to formally move to Montana and run for Governor he could spend as much of his money as he wished, same for Taylor Brown who ownes his own radio network and has been giving us the weather and cattle on feed reports and doing chevy commercials for the last 20 years. Is the system I propose totally fair? No but neither is life and neither is the current system we have now, or the future system we will have when Citizens United takes full effect. Now how would we pay for this? We would raise the cost of filling for office fees, for example its $15 dollars to file for the legislature right now, so if you are serious about doing it you wont mind paying say $45 dollars to file for legislature. Also we will put a filing fee on the parties, if the Peace and Love party wants to file to run in Montana they will pay $100k and they will automatically be on the ballot after the payment is made. Same for the Free Guns Party as well. Its not perfect and needs work but hey it’s a start.
I enjoyed reading your comments.
Also this, we all know that the Montana legislature is bought by the Chamber of Commerce, the NFIB, and the Montana Hospital Association.
I totally agree Farmboy…yes, well said: take the money out of politics and we might begin to see decisions made for the people and what is best for us and our country, not paybacks and political promises. http://www.fixcongressfirst.org
I agree, Farmboy! But, as we all know, the “Powers-That-Be” have shot down government funding of elections for years. They now they’d be on the outs if such a system were to be.
“…They now…” Woops! THEY KNOW. There, fixed it for me.
To Tom my advice you fix the system from within. It will be baby steps, and it will take years to fix, but we have to try, if we don’t I’m afraid we will not have a two party system, or a three party system, but a one party dictatorship in American in a few years. If we don’t get some independent minded public servants in office in a few years, instead of the current crop of self serving politicians, we are in trouble. I’m scared that politicians of both strips have sold us down river, the borrowed too much money from China, they’ve sent too many jobs over seas to the point where I don’t have an American made piece of clothing on my body but I’m not naked. And Im worried that they are going to sell us down river on food production and energy production. To These Aren’t Montanans Fool I agree the chamber of commerce, the NFIB, and the Hospital Association have too much power, here is my advice, if you talk to most current and former state legislators they will tell you they get around 350 bills per session that come across their desks. Now that is a 90 day session once every 2 years, they can’t read all these bills, so they depend on information from either a. fellow legislator, b. lobbyists, c. government officials, or d. the general public. You need to be involved and if you see a bill that concerns you call the state capital switchboard during the session and leave a message or talk to you legislator. Just remember these legislators work for you, they are hired hands, talk to them. Right now I see several things that concern me for instance, I don’t like Bill Harris’s idea to scrap the will of the people and over run I-161, plus I just read in the Billings Gazette that the Republicans are thinking about doing six reforendums on the 2012 ballot, including getting rid of the state income tax and replacing it with a state sales tax, or putting income tax and property tax rates on a formula that is determined by how much surplus is in the general fund, or getting rid of daylight savings time, just to name a few. I also like a few ideas, like Diane Sands wants to get rid of two state government employee holidays, election day and Columbus day, I agree with her, also there is a legislator that wants to get rid of polling places and do a complete mail in ballot. These and more are my concerns for this year.
I do not know about the rest of the state, but Derek Skees was elected because people like me went door to door and talked about issues that matter to the average person.
Derek spent untold hours asking questions and listened to what people told him.There were no $100 a plate dinners, no mega-dollar contributions.
Derek, nor anyone else is a dictator and there will be debates and votes. I do have to say I have not had more confidence in our local government in a long time.
Time will tell, but one thing is for sure-if you want good decisions made at the state level IT IS UP TO US as much as our legislators.
Doug M.
Don’t worry, dougie doo. We’ll be there in Helena to testify. When things get real nutty, and nuke boy skeester shows up in his little Confederidiot outfit, we’ll be right there to GREET him! I’m looking forward to it!
The really great thing about bein’ a Pubbie is that every day is a new dawn! You wake up withOUT any sense of at all of Montana history! What this means is that the skeester thinks that everyone will just fall all OVER themselves when the skeester says he wants to bring nuke plants to Montana! Well, he’s in for a BIG suprise! The moron is gonna get his ASS kicked by average Montanans that DIDN’T move their sorry asses here from Florida!
You see, little dougie, SOME of us still remember those toxic clouds that moved north after the nuke tests in Nevada. In fact, SOME of us (me included) lost relatives to that shit from unheard of cancers! But of course, the dink from florida doesn’t remember ’cause the dink wasn’t here!
Yes, it’s good to be a racist dink from florida ’cause everything is new to a new dink recently moved here from florida. But he will soon learn that Montanans are NOT buying any of that florida racist nuke shit here!
Just wait. You’ll see.
Hang onto your hats. It’s all about to start again. WTP is back in state court on Friday, January 21, 2011 trying to convince the court not to look at all the exhibits included in the Summary Judgement to get rid of Montana’s Corrupt Practices Act. Then on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 they are going after the Office of Political Practices. Their case: everything and its dog is unconstitutional. Gee, I think even breathing may be unconstitutional.
On Thursday January 27, 2011, the lawyer for Western Traditions Partnership (WTP)
requested that District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock remove WTP from a case it had won.
The judge mentioned that he had never before considered such a request. Usually its the
loser who wants out. (WTP’s winning brief declared that Montana’s Corrupt Practices was unconstitutional
for reasons cited in the U.S. Supreme court ruling Citisens United. In essensence,
corporations are people and their freedom of speech is protected.)
The judge didn’t buy the motion to dismiss WTP. WTP will face off against the
Attorney General in an appeal to the Montana Supreme Court. Look for this match up
in late spring.
But Wait There’s More! Two other entities want on board. Montana Citizens for Right
to Work and Sweet Grass Council for Community Integrity.
For more info go to http:/www.peoplespowerleague.info
What was the basis of WTP’s motion?
Hello, reporters, anyone out there?
Basis????? Judge Sherlock couldn’t find one although he asked several times. Guess that’s why he denied the motion.
So they just asked to be dismissed without giving a reason? Very strange, but considering who these people are Im sure there is some sleezy reason. Some of this stuff (most of which was never discussed in the media at all) is really shady. Like hiring some random college student in Bozeman to be their treasurer (or to be more accurate a dupe)…who has no idea what he is doing…and then having him sign off on all of their transactions.
Its a shame the political practices office is so small that it takes years for this stuff to get investigated. Who knows what kind of sleezy antics they were engaged in the last election.
http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/content/2recentdecisions/GraybillvWTPandCoalitionforEnergyandEnvironmentDecision