Q: What is The Montana Plan?
A: The Montana Plan, a breakthrough legal strategy, founded by Tom Moore and Jeff Mangan will stop corporate and dark money cold. It's how Montanans will beat Citizens United and take back their politics. It's headed toward Montana's 2026 ballot. Montana can do it, and your state can too! Watch this 90 second video:

Q: The Montana Plan turns back Citizens United?
A: Sort of. What it does is makes Citizens United irrelevant, by making it so that corporations can't spend money on political activities.

The Center for American Progress has crafted a legal strategy that can make Citizens United irrelevant – a method of ending corporate and dark money, state by state, using a power every state already holds. The approach is moving in Montana today, and it can be taken up tomorrow by any other state. Here's a September 17, 2025 USA Today op-ed by Tom Moore.

Q: If the voters approve The Montana Plan, surely it'll face challenges. SCOTUS seems proud of their 2010 Citizens United decision. Why wouldn't SCOTUS strike down The Montana Plan?
A: Corporate law is state law. SCOTUS has always been deferential to the principle of corporate state law. Watch this clip of Professor Sarah C. Haan a leading corporate law scholar and professor at Brooklyn Law School.

Q: How do Montanans feel about The Montana Plan?
A: Everywhere Jeff Mangan goes he gets nothing but rousing support for The Montana Plan. Because there was a time when Montana didn't allow money in politics - The Corrupt Practices Act of 1912. But then it was overturned due to Citizens United. Watch this clip of Jeff explaining Montana's history of being anti-corruption.

Q: What's the current status of The Montana Plan?
A: Jeff and his great team of volunteers expect that The Montana Plan will be on the 2026 ballot. Watch this clip to get an update as of this writing (25 October 2025).

Q: I live in a red state. My state legislature is controlled by Republicans. Citizens can't do a ballot initiative. What can I do?
A: The Montana Plan is best suited for states that have ballot initiatives, because then the citizens have all the power. For states that don't have a ballot initiative, the next best option is to get legislators to pass a law.

Don't be discouraged!

Citizen can organize into groups to pressure local representatives to back The Montana Plan or else. Or else, they won't get their vote. Citizen groups can collect signatures statewide proving how popular The Montana Plan is, which in turn pressures representatives to back it. And don't discount that The Montana Plan has strong support on both sides. If there's one thing (maybe only 1?) that citizens on both sides of the isle agree on, it's money has corrupted our politics.

Q: Are you guys getting paid to do this?
A: Jeff is a volunteer and most of the team are. However they do have a couple of contractors and will likely hire staff as The Montana Plan grows.

Q: Does The Montana Plan stop Elon Musk from pouring money into elections?
A: No. Musk can still do what he does. But if voters know it's Musk or whoever is putting money into a campaign, that makes a big difference. The Montana Plan gets rid of dark money in elections.

Q: What about super PAC's? Does The Montana Plan get rid of them?
A: No. But here's the thing. Super PAC's have to disclose their donors. And, super PAC's rely heavily on corporations contributions, because as of today corporations can spend unlimited monies on political campaigns. So if we get rid of corporations having the right to spend on political activities, that's a big impact on super PAC's.

Q: Super PAC's rely on corporations for big money?
A: Yes. Again, because corporations aren't limited on the amount of money they can spend on political activities and all other information except their name and registered agent is private.

Q: Why couldn't I just track down the super PAC's donors?
A: You can. But it's time consuming. And all you're going to find is the name of the corporation, their registered agent, and nothing else. Because again, the corporations tax returns, everything but their name and registered agent isn't public information. So yeah sure, you'll know that "Americans For a Better America" corp. gave money to some super PAC. You'll know their registered agent is "Agent for Americans For a Better America" with a PO BOX somewhere. But that's all you'll know.

There's a reason why these corporations choose vague names like "Americans For a Better America" for their corporation. So you can't figure out what they're up to!

Q: Why do people who want to buy elections form a corporation?
A: A few reasons. The #1 reason is that corporations don't have any limit on the amount of money they can spend on political activities. Another important reason is a corporation (unless the corporation is a publicly traded company – no corporation that spends money on political campaigns is) is a private entity. Private corporations don't make their tax returns - which includes itemized expenditures - public.

For example let's say you formed an LLC for your business. An LLC is a corporation, it's private. Your tax returns aren't public. Nor are your employees, or anything else about how you do business.

So someone or some group that want's to buy a political campaign typically forms a type of corporation called a 501(c)(4). A 501(c)(4) organization is a type of nonprofit entity recognized under the Internal Revenue Code. Its primary purpose is to promote social welfare. Unlike C corporations or S corporations, which are for-profit entities, 501(c)(4) organizations focus on activities that benefit the public good. This type of corporation, in addition to an LLC, doesn't have to disclose their donors. In fact the IRS has a specific carveout for c4's - c4's don't have to disclose their donors. A lot of other information is private as well.

Boom! Now this corporation shovels boat loads of cash into a super PAC. Again, because they have no limits on the amount of money they can spend on political activities. And citizens don't know who's shoveling in the cash.

The Montana Plan keeps corporations from spending anonymously, they can no longer launder their money through dark money groups.

Q: What's the difference between a corporations rights and a corporations powers?
A: This is a technical and wonky question! This clip talks about the differences.

Q: It seems like these corporations form in Delaware. What are you gonna do about Delaware?
A: Delaware is popular because it's friendly to corporations. So it's not likely that Delaware would pass The Montana Plan. But here's the good news. We don't need Delaware. Watch this clip to learn why not.

"It's rare that ideas come along that put the power back in the hands of the people to make the political system better. The Montana Plan does this".
-- Ben Olinsky