It comes as no surprise that the shadowy political group, Western Tradition Partnership (WTP), who laughingly touts itself as “grassroots”, wants to corrupt Montana’s elections with their unethical and irresponsible actions. Today in the Billings Gazette, Charles Johnson sheds a little more light on WTP’s intentions, motivations and how they fund their organization.
Donny Ferguson - Executive Director WTP and D.C. Insider
Just a clarifying note, WTP’s Executive Director, Donny Ferguson lives in Virginia…not really a bastion of “western traditions.” Donny Ferguson is a D.C. insider, he is not a Montanan.
WTP is the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge to Montana’s ban on corporate spending for candidates. In addition, they also tout their organization’s secrecy as a benefit of giving them money.
A former employee of WTP apparently leaked some materials to the Montana Political Practices Commissioner. WTP believes that a huge benefit to donating to them is that “donations are confidential” and that they don’t have to report names or amounts of any contribution. This comes as no surprise since they make a habit out of secrecy and deception. I personally believe, and I know most Montanans will agree with me, that in a Representative Democracy, there must be openness and accountability for our system to work. I think WTP would feel more comfortable operating in a Communist country.
Here is another gem coming from the presentation
“Our success won’t depend on which party is in power,” the presentation [WTP] said. “Politicians get the message loud and clear when their colleagues get beaten in the ballot box.”
This is another standard operating procedure of WTP: Threaten and intimidate candidates if they don’t turn in their poorly written and edited “surveys” that they send out.
I have left the best for last. The investigator for the State also found that WTP “intends to or has tried to solicit donations from officers of several foreign corporations or their affiliations, including some based in Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom.”
So, not only do they want to hide their funders from the public and the voter, they want corporations from foreign countries influencing Montana’s elections. That doesn’t sound very patriotic to me.
One thing that the article did not point out is that WTP is directly connected to convicted criminals. See this article about their connection to Colorado political operative Scott Shires.
