Amendment sought to limit corporate election donations

HELENA (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker on Thursday called for Montana to support a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to limit corporate donations in election campaigns.

Rep. Ellie Hill of Missoula introduced House Joint Resolution 3 in the State Administration Committee. Committee members did not take immediate action.

"I believe the corporate buyout of our elections is the reason to do it," she said of a Constitutional amendment that calls for free and fair elections.

It takes 34 states to trigger a convention. Thirty-eight states would then have to approve a change for the amendment to be put into effect.

Twenty states have similar resolution proposals in their legislatures this year, according to Ryan Clayton with Wolf PAC, a political action committee working to promote the amendment nationwide.

Hill said Montana voters called for such a change when they overwhelming passed a ballot initiative 2012 declaring corporations aren't people and money isn't political speech.

The measure challenged a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The decision eased restrictions on political campaign spending by corporations.

In 2013, a state judge struck down as unconstitutional certain provisions in the Montana initiative, saying it would require elected officials to vote a certain way on corporate campaign finance issues.

The U.S. high court in a subsequent decision said its ruling also nullified a separate Montana ban on corporate money passed by voters in 1912.

Opponents on Thursday argued that holding a convention could leave the Constitution vulnerable to rewrites in other sections.

Hill said passing the resolution might not lead to a convention if it prompts Congress to act.