Councilor questions dark money influence in Missoula city politics

"It is completely legitimate, completely above the table," Campbell said at the council meeting. "But appearance-wise it is just awful the way it looks, it kinda makes you sit back and think how this operates."

The Missoulian reported last month that Anderson is the executive director of A Better Big Sky. The 501(c)4 nonprofit has funded several political nonprofits since 2018, including Forward Montana, Montana Conservation Voters and Western Native Voice, and sometimes directly funds electioneering efforts. 

Montana Conservation Voters endorsed Anderson over Campbell in the 2021 City Council election and funded mailers on her behalf. 

"Montana Conservation Voters, again funded by a Better Big Sky and Ms. Anderson's organization, put out flyers on her behalf," Campbell said Monday night, showing the room two flyers he saved from the election.

Since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United, political action committees can spend an unlimited amount of money attempting to influence elections for Republicans and Democrats. 

Both sides of the aisle have increasingly flocked to 501(c)4 nonprofits to do so, which by law can conceal who donates money to their organizations. 

A Better Big Sky has grown from having $100,000 in revenue in 2018 to pulling in around $7.7 million in 2024, the Missoulian reported. Data from 2025 has yet to be released. 

Anderson did not address Campbell's remarks during the Monday night meeting.

She told the Missoulian in an email Tuesday that A Better Big Sky supports a diverse range of grassroots organizations focused on improving Montana's quality of life. 

"How an individual organization decides to engage or not in elections is something that each organization determines through its board and internal processes," Anderson said in the email. 

She said A Better Big Sky supports Montana Conservation Voters because of its history of advocating to protect access to open spaces and a clean and beautiful environment. 

She first got the group's endorsement in 2017. 

At Monday's council meeting, Campbell did say he has worked for the Montana branch of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative 501(c4) nonprofit that poured millions of dollars into the June 2026 primary election seeking to elect more hardline conservatives to the Montana Legislature. 

Campbell said he has worked as a paid canvasser and volunteer for the group. He said while dark money appears to be inevitable in politics, he wanted to learn more about how the money can impact local races. 

"Every other person around this horseshoe, the mayor included, have benefitted from organizations that have dollars from who knows where funneled down to local organizations that helped support you all in the past," Campbell, the lone conservative on council, said.

Follow the money

State campaign finance reports show Montana Conservation Voters paid for mailers for Anderson and several other candidates running in the 2021 Missoula City Council race.

The group spent $3,852 on 4,632 mailers for Anderson, and 2,071 campaign phone calls for $1,967.94. The group also supported Ward 6 Councilor Kristen Jordan, Ward 4 Councilor Mike Nugent and then Ward 1 Councilor Jennifer Savage in the 2021 election.

Montana Conservation Voters has received $409,650 from A Better Big Sky since 2020, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service, but did not get money in 2021.

Anderson would go on to defeat Campbell in the 2021 City Council election by a 59%-41% margin. 

Campbell would run again for the other Ward 5 seat in 2023, which then councilor John Contos was retiring from. He faced another candidate endorsed by Montana Conservation Voters, but won by a 53% to 47% margin.

Concern over favoritism

Campbell said Montana Conservation Voters never contacted him to ask about his policies and stances on public lands for a potential endorsement. 

The group primarily advocates for the protection and preservation of public lands in Montana, and has several policy objectives around clean air, clean water, wildlife and clean energy, according to its website.

Campbell said other groups, like the Western Montana Democratic Socialists of America, did not endorse him, but did reach out to see if he would consider filling out a list of his policies. 

He questioned how Montana Conservation Voters picked its endorsements and argued that there is a larger political system that is choosing winners and losers.

"We are within this homogenized system here in Missoula that is created because of groups like A Better Big Sky and other groups like it that seemingly pick and choose — again I received no outreach — pick and choose who they are going to support," Campbell said. 

Money in politics is 'poison'

Ward 6 Councilor Sean McCoy said dark money is not a Missoula problem, but a national issue spurred by the Citizens United decision that has seeped into politics at all levels. 

"It is a poison that is poisoning our entire nation's politics, it is the allowance of money as a voice," McCoy said, "and I think it is really important to keep in mind that when you have a decision like (Citizens United), you are eventually going to see it seep into every piece of your political landscape, because now it is okay."

McCoy was endorsed by Montana Conservation Voters in the 2025 council election, but said the group did not pay for mailers or directly fund his campaign. 

He said he appreciated the endorsement because he is "hugely" into public lands. 

Ward 1 Councilor Betsy Craske, who was endorsed by Montana Conservation Voters, said Campbell's assertion that all city councilors endorsed by the group financially benefitted from them is false. 

"That is simply not true, I do not think that an endorsement equals monetary support from these organizations," Craske said. "There are those of us on this dais who have not taken PAC money from these organizations, who have not had mailers sent out on their behalf, and who have not had any sort of monetary donations from these organizations that you are stating."

Ward 3 Councilor Jennifer Savage and Ward 2 Councilor Mirtha Becerra said at the meeting they planned to comment on the discussion, but needed time to formulate a statement.