by Russell Cleveland, Saint Regis
I’ve spent much of my life believing that if you work hard, keep your word and treat people fairly, you can build something worthwhile.
As a small-business owner, I learned quickly that money matters. You earn it, budget it and make careful decisions about every dollar because there is never an unlimited supply.
Politics seems to have forgotten that lesson.
Today, campaigns and the dark-money organizations surrounding them spend extraordinary sums influencing voters. Millions flow into Montana from corporate treasuries and undisclosed donors, saturating our televisions, social media feeds and mailboxes. Much of it doesn’t come from the people who live here.
As a Montanan, I find that troubling. As a veteran, it enrages me.
I served because I believed our constitutional republic was worth protecting, and that representative government should belong to the people, not the highest bidder, corporations seeking profit through political influence, or operatives who use division as a business model.
As a small-business owner, I know what happens when money becomes the deciding factor in a marketplace. The biggest spenders gain an advantage while smaller voices struggle to compete. Eventually, the system rewards whoever has the largest spending budget instead of the best ideas.
That beast is now rearing its ugly head in our politics.
Dark money doesn’t just affect elections. It affects how we see one another. Rage has become the product being sold, we are the customers, and division is the result. It makes reasonable people afraid to disagree and encourages politicians to focus on fundraising instead of solving problems.
The answer isn’t raising and spending even more money. It is changing the rules.
We need campaign-finance reform that increases transparency, strengthens accountability and prevents excessive or undisclosed spending from drowning out ordinary citizens. This shouldn’t be Republican or Democratic. It should belong to us, the voters of Montana.
Whether you own a business in Billings, work a ranch outside Miles City, run a shop in Missoula or raise a family anywhere in between, you possess something no political action committee should be able to purchase:
A voice.
This November is our chance to use it.
That is why I support The Montana Plan, ballot initiative I-194, and will vote YES. It won’t solve every problem in our politics, but restoring transparency, accountability and balance between ordinary citizens and wealthy political interests is a critical first step toward restoring something we desperately need:
Trust.
I hope you’ll join me in voting YES on I-194.
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