A group of Montana activists is pushing a ballot initiative attacking Citizens United, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that granted corporations the right to spend unlimited money in politics. Montana’s Republican Attorney General attempted to block the ballot initiative this week, but the fight is far from over.
In the third episode of Lever Time’s MONEYBOMB series, David Sirota sits down with former Federal Election Commission official Tom Moore, who is now a senior fellow at The Center for American Progress. They discuss the Transparent Election Initiative, Montana’s new proposal to purge dark money from the state, which could potentially rewrite national politics. Could this effort deal a blow to the corporate takeover of politics? And could it blaze a path for other states to follow?
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A full transcript of today’s episode is available below.
TRANSCRIPT
Following is an automated, unedited transcription of this episode. If you plan to quote any part of this transcript, please first confirm that it is correct by listening to the audio.
[00:00:00] David Sirota: Hey everyone. Just a quick note. This episode is part of Money Bomb, our special series about what Citizens United did to America and what's being done to fight back. This series coincides with the release of our new book, Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America. You can get the book at levernews.com/book.
If you'd like to hear other episodes from our series Moneybomb, be sure to check out the Lever Time feed, or visit our website at levernews.com. Okay, on with the show.
From The Lever's reader supported newsroom. This is Lever Time. I'm David Sirota. In our last episode, you heard about the push in Congress to create a constitutional amendment overruling Citizens United, that infamous 2010 court ruling.
That legalized corruption and lets corporations and billionaires buy elections. It's a bold idea, but an amendment to the Constitution would require three fourths of states along with members of the House and Senate to all agree, which seems like an impossible feat in the short term, even if it might end up being enacted in the long term.
Now here's the good news.
