A recent initiative—already on the Montana ballot this November— would go a long way toward curtailing dark money from US corporations in US politics. Called a “corporate power reset,” it would remove from corporations the power to spend money on political campaigns. All corporations are legal fictions whose only powers are those given under state laws, and states can modify those laws to eliminate the power to influence elections.
At a recent CA Indivisible Zoom meeting, Tom Moore of the Center for American Progress made the case for the Montana initiative (called the Transparent Election Initiative) and for making a similar effort in California and other states. Moore is a senior fellow at CAP who previously served as counsel to a longtime member of the Federal Election Commission. His comprehensive report on a general Corporate Power Reset is below, along with related commentary.
Several CA Indivisible groups are pushing legislators and candidates for governor to commit to working for this kind of action in California. We can join them! A suggested script from Indivisible Ventura: “I’m calling from [zip code] and I want [State Senator/Assemblymember______] to introduce and support the Montana Plan to stop corporate spending in CA politics.”
Below are links for more information:
Web version of Tom Moore’s comprehensive CAP report, “The Corporate Power Reset That Makes Citizens United Irrelevant”: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-corporate-power-reset-that-makes-citizens-united-irrelevant/
Robert Reich, “How to Get Rid of ‘Citizens United'”: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-to-get-rid-of-citizens-united
Recording of CAP’s October 14, 2025 event introducing the project: https://www.americanprogress.org/events/undoing-citizens-united-and-reining-in-super-pacs/
Short explainer video that reached 4.7 million views on Reddit, despite the unphotogenic narrator: https://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1nrcrez/video_the_legal_strategy_that_renders-citizens/
Link to the October 2025 national polling on this reform and on dark and corporate money, commissioned by Issue One: https://issueone.org/press/new-polling-citizens-united-money-in-politics-reforms/
The Transparent Election Initiative, which is advancing this toward Montana’s 2026 ballot: https://transparentelection.org/
Harold Meyerson in The American Prospect, “Montanans Go After ‘Citizens United'”: https://prospect.org/2025/10/27/montanans-go-after-citizens-united/
Bruce
Indivisible Elmwood 