A new corporate political disclosure trend is coming. For years, those advocating increased corporate political disclosure have looked for ways to force companies to publicly reveal the names and amounts of corporate contributions to so-called “dark money” 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofits and 501(c)(6) trade associations. To date, these initiatives have had, at best, limited success. But this month, by signing an unprecedented Executive Order, Montana Governor Steve Bullock introduced a new tactic in the effort to compel companies to publicly disclose 501(c)(4) and (c)(6) contributions. This tactic—using state government contracting rules to force broad disclosure of previously non-public corporate political donations—could upend the current corporate political disclosure state of play. Because these executive orders do not need legislative approval, Montana’s Executive Order may be only the first domino to fall in the coming months. More detail on the Executive Order and its ramifications are discussed in this Covington advisory.
