Bullock sues to block Hill from spending $500,000 contribution

Plaintiffs appeal case to U.S. Supreme Court

Montana Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Bullock has filed suit in Lewis and Clark County District Court to stop his Republican opponent, former Congressman Rick Hill, from spending campaign contributions Bullock claims are illegal.

In his suit against Hill and his campaign committee, A Lot of Folks For Rick Hill, Bullock claims Hill received a $500,000 contribution from the Montana Republican Party in the six-day period between a federal court ruling that found Montana campaign limits unconstitutional and a federal appeals court ruling that overturned the lower court’s ruling.

Montana law limits individual contributions to $630 for a gubernatorial candidate. The law also limited aggregate donations from political parties. A gubernatorial candidate can not accept more than $22,600 from all political party committees.

Bullock claims the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Oct. 16 means Hill can’t spend the $500,000 for his campaign. Bullock also notes that the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices “strongly recommended” that candidates and political parties abide by Montana’s campaign contribution limits.

In his brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Bullock warned that, “In a state that has operated with some of the most restrictive campaign limits in the country, there would suddenly be no limits whatsoever.” He also warned about “the likely disruption to the election and the untold, irreversible consequences.”

While Hill has said he wants to keep and use the $500,000 contribution, the conservative groups that sued to end the state’s campaign contribution limits have turned to the U.S. Supreme Court for action.

The plaintiffs were led by Doug Lair of American Tradition Partnership, formerly Western Tradition Partnership, a conservative group now based in Washington, D.C., that is fighting Montana election officials to withhold the names of its donors.

Other plaintiffs included Montana Right To Life, Sweet Grass Council for Community Integrity, Lake County Republican Central Committee, Beaverhead County Republican Central Committee, Jake Oil LLC, Champion Painting Inc. and individuals Steve Dogiakos and John Milanovich.

James Bopp, the attorney representing ATP and the other plaintiffs, wrote to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Oct. 18 requesting an intervention.

“This request would preserve the First Amendment rights of applicants and other Montana contributors to engage in political speech during the 2012 election,” he wrote.

Bullock quickly responded to the plaintiff’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Whoever American Tradition Partnership is, they are trying every angle to dismantle Montana’s campaign laws and throw the doors wide open to enormous sums of anonymous, out-of-state money,” he said.

Bopp is a member of the James Madison Center for Free Speech. He has served as general counsel for National Right to Life since 1978 and as special counsel for Focus on the Family since 2004.

Bopp became an Indiana representative to the Republican National Committee in 2005, and in 2009, he and another RNC member proposed a resolution calling on the Democratic Party to change its name to the “Democratic Socialist Party.” Bopp also served as an adviser on Mitt Romney’s Republican presidential campaign.

Bopp has spent 30 years fighting regulations that limit campaign spending, filing 21 lawsuits across the U.S. He has been involved in campaign finance cases in California, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Tennessee, among other places.

But Bopp’s greatest achievement came as a legal adviser for Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit organization formed in 1988 to promote “American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security.”

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is considered a watershed moment in the history of campaign regulation. The Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibited government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.

The Citizens United ruling opened up elections to uncapped spending by corporations and unions and led to the creation of “super PACs” that this year bought up millions of dollars of television airtime across the U.S. promoting — or mostly attacking — candidates.

Here in Montana, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell issued a number of rulings on campaign regulation in light of Citizens United, including his Oct. 3 ruling that the state’s campaign contribution limits were unconstitutional.

Lovell earlier ruled that Montana cannot ban corporations from contributing to political committees that make independent expenditures, and that a state law requiring attack ads disclose voting records and another banning knowingly false statements in attack ads were unconstitutional.