Appeals court denies 'dark money' group's request
A two-judge panel from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a Billings-based political group’s request to keep the names of its donors secret for campaign ads it wants to publish before Election Day.
The panel denied Montanans for Community Development’s emergency motion for an injunction on Oct. 30 without comment.
The group wants to prevent the state from enforcing laws that define campaign contributions, expenditures and political committees. The group says the state’s legal definitions are too vague, the disclosure requirements for political committees are too cumbersome, and the state’s campaign laws infringe upon free-speech rights.
Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl said the state’s campaign regulations are needed to keep outside groups from coordinating with candidates and spending money to boost or oppose those candidates’ campaigns
“On behalf of the people of Montana, I’m pleased because it keeps our election process in 2014 orderly,” Motl said about the appeals court’s decision. “That’s a far cry from what happened in 2012.”
Montanans for Community Development asked the appellate court for the injunction after being rejected twice by U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen, who called the group’s request “staggering.”
The tax-exempt organization wants to release ads before the election that mention candidates without being labeled a political committee. It also wants to prevent Motl’s office from publishing the election complaints it receives and the decisions it makes on those complaints because of the potential to disclose an association’s private information.
Montanans For Community Development’s president, Bill Coate, ran for governor as an independent in 2012. Sen. Ed Walker, R-Billings, is a board member.
Saying it engages in “grassroots advocacy and issues-oriented educational campaigns,” the group seeks to publish ads that promote energy development and attack environmentalist groups while showing photographs of legislative candidates who support or oppose its views.