Hawaii has enacted a campaign finance law modeled on what organizers are calling the Montana Plan — an effort to limit corporate spending in state elections — giving the movement its first out-of-state adoption and adding momentum ahead of Montana voters getting their own chance to weigh in.
The Montana Plan drew national attention earlier this month when former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg appeared at the Mother Lode Theater in Butte on May 17 to headline an event promoting the effort. The initiative is aimed at creating a state law to reduce the influence of corporate money in Montana elections, a goal that organizers say is consistent with what voters have historically supported here, even as federal courts have constrained what states can do in the wake of Citizens United.
For Helena, where the state legislature meets and where lobbying and campaign finance intersect with daily civic life, the Montana Plan is not a distant policy debate. If it qualifies for the ballot, Helena-area voters will be among those deciding whether Montana enacts its own version of the restrictions Hawaii just signed into law. Organizers have said Montanans will have the opportunity to vote on the measure, though a specific ballot date had not been confirmed in available reporting.
Hawaii's adoption of the framework gives proponents a working model to point to and gives opponents a target to scrutinize. Whether the legal challenges that have followed similar efforts in other states will materialize here remains to be seen — but the campaign is now operating with a tangible out-of-state precedent behind it.