Big spending for ballot measures

By MIKE DENNISON - IR State Bureau - 10/25/2006
HELENA — Three conservative-leaning ballot measures may be in legal limbo, but campaign spending on the trio continues unabated, approaching $1 million in the past six weeks.

A state district judge on Sept. 13 tossed the measures from the Nov. 7 ballot, saying signature-gatherers for constitutional initiatives 97 and 98 and Initiative 154 had engaged in widespread fraud.

That ruling has been appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. But with less than two weeks until the election, the high court has yet to rule.

This legal holding pattern has left opponents and supporters of the three measures little choice but to campaign as though the measures are still on the ballot.

“I don’t know that we have a choice,’’ said Eric Feaver, president of MEA-MFT, the union helping lead the campaign against CI-97, which would create a constitutional limit on increases in most state spending. “We’ve been telling people that you’ve got to vote like you mean it, and not presume the (high) court is going to concur with (keeping it off the ballot).’’

CI-97 opponents have taken that advice to the bank, spending $640,000 in the past six weeks, including $570,000 on TV and other broadcast advertising.

Most of that money —$560,000 — came from two sources: The National Education Association and AARP-Montana.

NEA, the national umbrella group for public school teachers’ unions, contributed $310,000 to the Not in Montana-No on CI-97 campaign, and AARP-Montana, a consumer group with 150,000 members 50 years or older, chipped in another $250,000 to the anti-CI-97 campaign.

Other contributors included the Montana Hospital Association, known as MHA, the Montana Contractors Association and the Service Employees International Union in Washington, D.C.

This range of groups says CI-97 would needlessly restrict government spending and that the state constitution already requires a balanced budget.

Supporters of CI-97, CI-98 and I-154 also are continuing to spend money on their campaigns, reporting $315,000 in spending the past six weeks, including about $151,000 on broadcast advertising.

CI-98 would make it easier for citizens to attempt to recall judges in Montana, and I-154 would allow property owners to demand payment from government if they think government action has devalued their property.

The campaign coordinator for all three measures is Trevis Butcher, a rancher and political activist from Winifred.

Nearly all of the funding in support of the three measures has come from Montanans in Action, a group formed this year. Butcher is the group’s treasurer.

Montanans in Action now has contributed a total of $1.1 million to the campaigns of CI-97, CI-98 and I-154. Butcher has said the group is not required by law to reveal its donors. That assertion has been challenged by a rival group and is being investigated by the state political practices commissioner.

Butcher, who did not return telephone messages Tuesday, has said the measures are meant to put more power in the hands of the voters to control government.

I-154 opponents, led by conservation and environmental groups, are going ahead with their campaign as well. But the confusing legal status of the measure has made it tough to raise money, said Janet Ellis, executive director of Montana Audubon and a steering committee member for Property Owners Against I-154.

“People don’t think it’s on the ballot, and then you have to explain that it is on the ballot, and that it may be off the ballot,’’ she said. “It becomes a lot more difficult to raise funds with that kind of a message.’’