As DGA chair Bullock would raise campaign cash

HELENA – Gov. Steve Bullock this week acknowledged his interest in serving in the top post at the Democratic Governors Association.

Politico reported Wednesday that Bullock, who in December 2013 was chosen to chair the group’s major donor program, is poised to succeed Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin in the organization’s top spot.

“Gov. Bullock is a Democratic governor who knows how to balance a budget, keep money in the bank for a rainy day and prioritize public schools,” Bullock’s spokesman, Dave Parker, said in a statement. “Folks have noticed what Gov. Bullock is doing out here and some of his colleagues have encouraged him to consider running. He’s doing that.”

The group convenes in Los Angeles on Dec. 8-9 for its annual meeting and holiday party, at which Bullock is expected to be picked as the next DGA chair.

If elected, Bullock would head an organization that primarily exists to elect Democratic governors, and does so by raising millions of dollars from corporate donors.

The DGA is a 527 tax-exempt political organization that can solicit corporate contributions in any amount.

In 2012, the DGA raised more than $50 million, much of that coming from unions, drug makers, insurance companies, energy companies and other corporate sources. That year, the DGA gave over $2.8 million to Montana Jobs, Education and Technology PAC, a political action committee that worked to get Bullock elected.

In 2014, the DGA raised more than $64 million from many of the same union and corporate sources.

As chair of DGA, one of Bullock’s primary roles would be to raise money for the DGA and direct how those funds are spent. Presumably, a good chunk of DGA money could be spent on Bullock’s 2016 re-election campaign.

Bullock, who has decried the influence of corporate money in state politics as attorney general and as governor, may find it difficult to take up that mantle again in 2016 after helping an organization raise corporate money to influence elections.

In May 2012, while serving as attorney general and vying for his party’s nomination for governor, Bullock bragged about taking the “fight against corporate influence in Montana elections to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

That year Bullock unsuccessfully defended Montana’s 100-year-old Corrupt Practices Act — which banned direct corporate contributions to state political candidates — before the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court eventually struck down Montana’s law in a reaffirmation of its controversial Citizens United ruling, which found a federal ban on independent campaign expenditures prior to an election violated the First Amendment rights of corporations and labor unions to engage in political speech.

In his defense of Montana’s law, Bullock said in the May 2012 press release that: “Allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of shareholder money from the corporate treasury — rather than from the individual bank accounts of that corporation’s officers and key employees — is bad for our democracy, bad for the integrity of our elections and contrary to common-sense.”

Last March, Republicans blasted Bullock, calling him a hypocrite for criticizing corporate money and then inviting corporate donors to a high-dollar DGA fundraiser he hosted at Big Sky Resort.

Republican political operative Brock Lowrance worked on Republican Rick Hill’s 2012 gubernatorial race the year Bullock narrowly defeated Hill to become governor.

Some political observers say Hill’s campaign was damaged by the perception that it was heavily influenced by corporate political spending in a year where “dark money” became a cause célèbre among Democratic candidates and voters. In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election, Hill’s campaign accepted a $500,000 donation from the Montana Republican Party but was later barred by a judge from spending it.

“Steve Bullock self-righteously preaches about corporate dollars influencing our elections, but what Bullock won’t tell Montanans is that his new job will be to raise corporate dollars and then use those dollars to influence our elections,” Lowrance said in an email Thursday.

Lowrance said the money Bullock raises with the DGA will eventually be used in Montana to benefit Bullock’s reelection campaign.

“It’s hypocritical. Steve Bullock tells Montanans one thing, but then he does another when he thinks we aren’t watching,” Lowrance said.

Bullock declined to be interviewed until after the DGA election.

“Gov. Bullock would be happy to sit down for an interview if and when he is elected by his colleagues to lead the DGA. Until that time, I think an interview is premature,” Parker said.