A recent opinion piece by Debbie Churchill of the Montana GOP has several misstatements regarding Initiative 194 (I-194) that call for a response.
I-194 would prohibit corporations doing business in the state of Montana from contributing to political candidates or causes. It would not affect a private citizen’s right to contribute in any way.
Ms. Churchill states that by denying Montana corporations the opportunity to contribute, the voices of small business owners will be drowned out by out-of-state billionaires. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
We own a small business. If I-194 became law, our business would be prohibited from making political contributions. Our response to that is, so what? Our business has never made political contributions. However, we as private citizens have made contributions, and will be able to do so in the future.
What I-194 limits is large corporations like NorthWestern Energy from making political contributions and buying influence in Montana politics. This is what truly drowns out the voices of everyday Montanans.
However, Ms. Churchill’s greatest misstatement is that I-194 used out-of-state, paid signature collectors. That is nonsense. We, along with over 500 unpaid Montana volunteers, spent thousands of hours collecting over 50,000 signatures to get I-194 on the ballot in November. All the other initiatives this spring relied heavily on paid collectors. I-194 was all volunteer. Get your facts straight, Debbie.
As Montana small business owners, we strongly support I-194. Power to the people, not corporations.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.