Montana

Price of persuasion: Groups spent more than $9 million influencing Montana legislators, with mixed results

Published

12 months ago

July 23, 2025

Price of persuasion: Groups spent more than million influencing Montana legislators, with mixed results

Ron Marshall knew that he was beat. The vape shop owner-turned-state lawmaker had been in plenty of political scrapes over nicotine products during his tenure at the Montana Legislature, but this time was different.

As chair of the House Human Services Committee in the 2025 session, he’d heard from both Big Nicotine and what the Republican from Hamilton categorically refers to as the “organ lobby” — the heart and lung associations — pushing hard against products that are harmful to users’ health.

But Marshall wasn’t ready for the tidal wave of spending by tobacco companies advocating for House Bill 525, legislation that winnowed the list of vape products sold in Montana, in what was one of the more high-dollar lobbying efforts of that legislative session.

All told, 474 groups spent more than $9.3 million to influence lawmakers as they decided the fates of hundreds of pieces of legislation during the first four months of the year. The data comes from principal spending reports filed with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. Total spending was similar for the 2023 legislative session.

Combined, tobacco companies spent $219,151. Spending by Altria, the largest tobacco company in the United States with Philip Morris brands like Marlboro in its portfolio, had more than doubled since the 2023 session.

“They have this PMTA list of approved products, 26 approved,” said Marshall in a recent interview with Montana Free Press. PMTA is shorthand for Premarket Tobacco Product Application. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s PMTA list consists of new nicotine products that can be sold while the government weighs permanent approval. Big Nicotine is very effective at muscling its products onto the list, Marshall said.

Not quite halfway through the 2025 legislative session, Marshall quit, insisting that his adversaries’ lobbying reach was too great. HB 525, which died in process after Marshall resigned, would have put refillable vapes in the loss column by clearing shelves to make space for Big Nicotine’s PMTA-approved products.

Nicotine, labor issues and the politicization of judicial races and elections were top spending issues for principals attempting to influence the Montana Legislature. The top spenders from 2025 are a mix of in-state stakeholders and nonprofit issue advocacy groups tied to Republican influencers. Occasionally, these groups clashed over the same policy matters.

The Montana Federation of Public Employees, the state’s largest union of public employees, was the top spender of the session with $179,079 in total expenditures.

The number of bills MFPE lobbied numbered 262. Their success rate — when a bill’s fate matched the organization’s support or opposition — was about 65%, according to state lobbying reports and the Montana Free Press Capitol Tracker. For perspective, the Montana Chamber of Commerce, which spent $122,000 lobbying on 164 bills including everything from Medicaid expansion (which it supported) to the version of residential and small business property tax relief that lawmakers passed (which it opposed) had a 75% success rate.

MFPE President Amanda Curtis said in an early July email that union members write and vote to select subjects to lobby, or as Curtis calls it a “member-driven and member-approved” process. The list ranged from support for Medicaid expansion and public lands to increasing pay for public school teachers and opposition to partisan judicial elections.

The Service Employees International Union 775 was third in total spending at $138,045. The bills lobbied by SEIU went the way of its position about half the time.

Sandwiched between the two unions at No. 2 was Montana Citizens for Right to Work, which reported total spending of $139,541, while listing work on just one bill, Senate Bill 376, which would have ended requirements that employees pay union dues as a term of employment in organized businesses.

The right-to-work bill was voted down twice in the same day in February, first in committee and second on the Senate floor, where sponsor Sen. Mark Noland, R-Bigfork, couldn’t persuade 26 lawmakers to blast the bill out of committee for a vote.

Before the bill was heard in the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee, union advocates lined the path from the Capitol’s second-floor rotunda to where the committee was meeting one floor above.

Noland recognized the union backers’ strength in numbers, granting them the majority of the time during the SB 376 hearing. More than 200 people signed up to speak against the bill. The only supporters of the bill were two right-to-work organization reps.

“We’re going to give you a little more time, because there’s more of you. And you know, I’m all about fairness,” Noland said at the hearing’s start. Spending reports for Western States Right to Work, lobbying as Montana Citizens for Right to Work, show they spent more than $100,000 on printing and postage, on-brand for an organization whose national parent, National Right to Work, is known for mail campaigns to pressure lawmakers and voters, including a secretive campaign in Montana’s 2010 Republican primaries.

A voicemail placed to Montana Citizens for Right to Work President Randy Pope wasn’t returned before the publication of this story.

Other single-issue big spenders include Americans for Citizen Voting, a Missouri-based group that’s proposed amending several state constitutions to say that only citizens vote in local elections. Voting is already restricted to citizens in state and federal elections.

ACV was once a nonprofit but the IRS revoked that tax status in 2022, citing several years of not reporting their finances. When it was a nonprofit, the group was funded by Liberty Initiative Fund, which in turn received money from Restoration of America, an organization that has funded the use of discredited techniques for finding voter fraud, according to a 2022 report by ProPublica. Richard Uihlein, a large Republican donor and shipping supplies magnate, is the primary contributor to Restoration’s efforts.

ACV Director Jack Tomczak traveled to Montana twice to testify for Senate Bill 185, the citizen vote bill sponsored by Sen. Theresa Manzella, R-Hamilton. ACV’s total spending was $111,881. The bill died in the House. Afterward, ACV ran attack ads against Billings Republican Sherry Essmann for voting against the bill.

Essmann told Montana Free Press in June that Montana already limits voting to citizens, which is why she voted against it.

A slate of bills to weaken the political firewall between Montana courts, the Legislature and the executive branch drew top spenders. Combined, the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Montana spent nearly $250,0000. The two groups opposed a bill to make Montana judicial races partisan, while also opposing bills that they said violate constitutional rights like freedom of religion. Likewise, the Montana State Bar and Montana Trial Lawyers spent a combined $103,000 opposing bills to change the judiciary.

Seven of 27 bills to change the judicial system passed. Registered principals supporting the bills were few in number, but Senate Bill 42, which called for partisan judicial races, did draw support from Montana Family Foundation, a Christian policy and advocacy group that mostly steered clear of bills challenging the judiciary. MFF reported spending $78,000 lobbying the Legislature in 2025.

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Montana

Montana Lottery Big Sky Bonus, Millionaire for Life results for July 9, 2026

Published

11 minutes ago

July 10, 2026

Press Room

The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at July 9, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 9 drawing

08-21-24-29, Bonus: 16

Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 9 drawing

02-15-22-54-58, Bonus: 04

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.

Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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Montana

District court judge blocks new Montana GOP bylaws – WTOP News

Published

10 hours ago

July 9, 2026

Press Room

A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists…

A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists out of the party ranks.

Lewis and Clark County District Judge Michael F. McMahon issued the restraining order Wednesday morning. The order had been requested by county precinct committees and officers suing the state party organization over the new bylaws. The plaintiffs are the Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee, the Choteau County Republican Central Committee, and individual committee members Jeff Essmann, Ted Kronebusch, James Wilson and state Rep. Brad Barker, R-Red Lodge.

At issue are bylaws passed during MTGOP’s June platform convention that the litigating party members say amount to “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” The new bylaws require members to pay $20 in annual membership dues and pledge a loyalty oath, and subject members to removal from elected party positions for nonpayment of dues or for “conduct deemed inconsistent with party purposes,” as determined by executive party party officers. The new bylaws allow charges for removal to be brought by any 20 official Republican Party members.

Montana Republican Party Chairman Art Wittich, the only official spokesperson for the state party, has not responded to voicemails and texts sent to his cell phone Wednesday. Wittich, elected party chairman in June 2025, has long been emphatic about exposing “Democrats disguised as Republicans” — for Wittich a now decade-old battle that spun into a bitter multimillion-dollar war between party hardliners and relative centrists in this spring’s Republican legislative primaries.

The centrists drew the ire of the hardliners in 2025 by collaborating with Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and legislative Democrats to pass a balanced state budget and key pieces of legislation, including increased taxes on second homes and property tax reductions for primary residences and small businesses.

What constitutes disqualifying conduct isn’t fully spelled out in the bylaws, but they do specify that “collaborating with Democrats” in the Legislature, the governor’s office, the courts, or elections can get members disciplined or removed.

The lawsuit alleges that “The 2026 bylaws empower a small group within the party to revoke Republican affiliation from candidates or office holders, undoing primary nominations by the electorate.”

The plaintiffs argue that Montana voters, not party bylaws, should determine who represents the Republican Party in general elections and who represents voting precincts on the publicly elected county-level Republican committees that coordinate local political activity.

The Montana Legislature in 2019 passed a bill protecting publicly elected party precinct committee officers from being arbitrarily removed from office and defined attempts to do so as “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” That law, sparked by Republican Party infighting 10 years ago, is the foundation of the current lawsuit.

There has been a surge of public interest in Republican precinct-level politics following a perceived lack of support by party hardliners for Republican candidates in conservative strongholds like Flathead County, where more than 60 new precinct committeemen and committeewomen were elected in June. That wave of new officers was preceded by Flathead County Republican Central Committee members considering an endorsement of Libertarian Sid Daoud for Kalispell mayor over Republican Kisa Davison in late 2025. The Kalispell mayor’s race is nonpartisan, but Republicans have gone to court to secure the party’s right to endorse candidates in nonpartisan races.

Wittich’s own campaign for precinct committeeman representing Whitefish was a casualty of that new wave of public interest. He lost to Republican Giuseppe “G-man” Caltabiano, who serves on the Whitefish City Council.

Caltabiano’s wife, Roxanne Ross, defeated Candace Wittich, wife of the Republican chair, in the same election.

State law gives precinct officers two-year terms and specifies that they can be removed only for death, written resignation or loss of residency. The new bylaws state that participation in party governance, including service as a precinct official, “is a privilege of association, not a right conferred by public office or candidacy. Members must act in good faith to support the Party’s purpose and must not engage in conduct materially inconsistent with the Party’s interests, including conduct that undermines its platform, policy positions, election operations, or internal governance.”

The recent changes to the party bylaws allow precinct officeholders to be suspended from voting in party matters and replaced by party leadership for noncompliance. Empty precinct seats can be filled by the Republican Party chair.

“Every Republican candidate sells their version of Republicanism to the people in a primary campaign, and the voter chooses which version to buy,” the lawsuit states. “The party cannot dictate what brands of Republicanism are on the market.”

Former MTGOP chair Jeff Essmann, a plaintiff who is also a long-serving precinct officer, said in his affidavit that members of the Republican State Central Committee weren’t given a required notification about attempts to amend the bylaws. He said he would have attended the platform convention and argued against amending the bylaws if he had known.

“The 2026 Bylaws empower any twenty members of the Party to recommend any other member of the Party for expulsion from the party, to be determined by the State Central Committee, even people who do not reside in Yellowstone County and who have never met me,” Essmann said in the affidavit.

Other central committee members produced pre-convention emails about potential changes to the bylaws, but no details about the amendments.

In issuing the order, McMahon indicated that Republicans challenging the bylaws are likely to succeed. He set a July 13 hearing on whether to make the order permanent.

“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that the challenged provisions are inconsistent with Montana election law and constitutional protections governing candidacy, nomination, speech, association, due process, and elected precinct committee representatives,” McMahon ruled.

___

This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

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© 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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Montana

Montana Lottery Powerball, Lotto America results for July 8, 2026

Published

21 hours ago

July 9, 2026

Press Room

The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at July 8, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from July 8 drawing

12-29-37-43-55, Powerball: 18, Power Play: 4

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Lotto America numbers from July 8 drawing

17-26-31-32-37, Star Ball: 01, ASB: 02

Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 8 drawing

03-13-16-17, Bonus: 10

Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from July 8 drawing

06-27-33-44-69, Powerball: 23

Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Montana Cash numbers from July 8 drawing

08-16-17-22-27

Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 8 drawing

16-18-43-48-50, Bonus: 01

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.

Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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