Dirty Money, Clean Conscience
We have to push back, even if it’s the unpopular thing to do.
I ran for U.S. Senate in Montana as a proud Democrat and a proud Montanan.
We spent nearly two years on the ground listening to thousands of Montanans. When we brought those concerns, ideas, and frustrations back to the Montana Democratic state leadership over this time, they showed little interest in hearing them.
People have had enough. Enough dark money. Enough propaganda. Enough billionaires buying influence. Enough political organizations telling voters what they should think instead of listening to what they have to say. Republicans and Democrats are not listening. Montana does not need another consultant, donor, focus group, or imported endorsement.
One billionaire, Jason Carroll, injected a few million in Montana’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate at the last minute, and it paid off for him. A few news outlets hinted at the truth but gave up on the story, even though Carroll owns online trading platforms and his pick of the winner was a long shot at 10-to-one.
Carroll’s strategy was a stream of constant misinformation directed at our campaign through digital, media, and even paid personal contact with voters where teams were hired to contact Democratic voters by phone and spread misinformation.
A single wealthy person should not be able to do the bidding of powerful political forces in our democracy.
The forces behind the dark money frenzy in the Montana Senate primary were Jon Tester, Max Baucus and the national Democratic establishment, eager to cash in on Seth Bodnar’s multi-million dollar fund raising potential.
The last people to lecture us about electability are the establishment Dems in Montana. Winning races appear to be secondary to their aims of making money.
One billionaire undermined a U.S. Senate primary like he was ordering a latte, showing us it could and would be done. I’d like folks to stop calling this anything other than what it was so we can face the oligarchy with eyes wide open.
Transparent elections don’t involve tech billionaires saturating every channel with propaganda, phone calls to people’s homes repeating lies, or political ads so effective that Montana Free Press, Lee Newspapers, the Daily Montanan, party officials, and even candidates repeat their paid propaganda as fact.
The Republicans did not want us to win the primary. They wanted to strangle me in the crib, and they did.
Jason Carroll pushed a similar strategy through the Democrats and the Progressive Vets PAC. This is a red, flashing light of warning for free and fair elections and the influence of money in politics.
People outnumber the billionaires, and I’m fighting for the people. The billionaires know this. That’s why they try to stop us.
We cannot give up.
We need a movement rooted in the Montana Constitution and accountable to the people instead of the parties. If we accept that the billionaires win because they fool us with propaganda, we’re accepting fascism and oligarchy.
Instead, we can be a lighthouse.
We can be a beacon of democracy. Take the capitalism out of democracy, not with rhetoric or dark money-funded initiatives but through the candidates we support and the choices we make, and we will always win with the people.
We have both an Executive Director of the Democratic Party writing editorials for Montana newspapers and a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate now who just showed up in the Democratic party six months ago.
Is it coincidence they both have ties to Pennsylvania like “Independent” Seth Bodnar, the chosen pick for U.S. Senate by Baucus and Tester and their dark money forces? No, they assure us.
Why do we as Democrats trust these people? Vibes?
Tester raised up to $150 million in his 2024 re-election bid and where do folks think that went? Orphanages and food banks? Tribal hospitals and head starts? Follow the money.
We’re just watching the billionaires’ charade play out now, no matter what the press or even the candidates say or know, no matter the hard work of delegates last weekend in Billings at the Democratic convention.
The fix is in to protect the right people and make the right people money, lots of money, tens of millions.
Our party harbors a deep rot of greed and corruption. Powerful Democrats spent decades protecting known child predator Jonathan Windy Boy and so many other predators in the party. The seduction of power holds no interest for me. Win or lose, I will always hunts and expose child predators in this state. If it takes $7 million to take out a voice of the people because she goes a step further and speaks out against dark money, against data centers, that’s still not enough to shut me up until the last statute of limitations expires.
I put my toe on the line when it comes to calling out predators and pedophiles and this scares the hell out of a lot of people in power in our party. What scares them more is that I cannot be bought.
This is not a moment where we stand down. The oligarchs are getting bolder. The propaganda and lies that lost our election are now knitted in our party’s fabric, at least until the other shoe drops. Tens of millions of dollars and a U.S. Senate seat is at stake. What a tragedy that money, greed, dishonor, vanity, and power have so far prevailed in our party.
When one billionaire buys a $3.4 million dollar media package in our state for a struggling candidate, we cannot react as if that’s simply politics as usual. We should be ashamed of who we have become. We will not let the oligarchy buy our votes. We will not get used to corruption and sleaze.
We have to push back, even if it’s the unpopular thing to do.
How do we push back?
We need to fight to ban dark money from our elections, for real. We need to fight for a moratorium on data centers in Montana, nothing less. We need to band together as people outside of party labels and structures to fight for the things we believe in.
Let’s get together and do it.
This is all propaganda and lies. Republican PACs featuring my phone number were not a boon to me or the campaign and bullying and harassing calls continue to this day. I cannot be bought and this is a problem for both political parties in Montana.
Election tampering? Insider market manipulation? Not just unethical, but should be illegal. I was a volunteer for I-194. The ballot initiative campaign was intense. It’s going to get really rough as Dark Money forces/allies stuff the mailboxes of voters with misinformation to defeat the initiative at the polls.
Thanks seems inadequate for all of the work on behalf of Montanans you have done and are continuing to do, but thank you!
People are pushing back! That’s why the Montana Plan is on the ballot. Join with Russ Cleveland to get this vitally important measure across the finish line instead of rehashing the primary ad nauseam.