Conservative groups who have successfully backed legislation in six states this year to ban foreign funding of ballot initiatives have one message for Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte about his state’s measure.
Veto it.
House Bill 818 passed the Montana Legislature but was watered down through amendment and lacks the same strong protections against foreign funding of ballot measures that passed in other states, conservative critics said.
States have enacted bans on both direct and indirect funding of state ballot initiatives. They are designed to prevent a foreign person or entity from bankrolling a ballot measure. Conservative groups have pointed to the foreign money that in some cases indirectly funded state abortion measures. But such funding bans would just as easily prevent a foreign donor from indirectly funding a ballot measure favored by a pro-Second Amendment…
