DARK MONEY – Review

Investigative journalist John S. Adams in the Montana Capitol building, in a scene from the documentary DARK MONEY, a PBS Distribution release.

Director Kimberly Reed’s documentary DARK MONEY is a cautionary tale on the risks to a democratic republic from hidden money funding political campaign ads. This engrossing documentary is a chilling but fascinating look at the way money from secret out-of-state and even foreign government sources can be used to influence or disrupt state-level political races in this country, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. To illustrate the issue, Reed focuses a state legislature race in Montana as an example, where out-of-state organizations use dark money to fund an effort to gain control of its legislature and direct public policy for those special interests.

Montana is a good example, as a conservative state that is traditionally Republican but which has both an independent streak and a tradition of grassroots community in politics. Although the specific example is Montana, it it is a clear illustration of the power of unlimited hidden money to influence local elections in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, a cautionary tale for other states also being targeted for similar efforts. Recently in Missouri, when the “right-to-work” proposition, Prop A, was on the ballot, pro-“right-to-work” political mailers and ads appeared on local television and in mailboxes, a campaign funded by one of the groups featured in this documentary, Americans for Prosperity, a “dark money” organization founded by one of the Koch brothers and Karl Rove.

Montana, as the documentary points out, is unique in some ways. Montana has low population but abundant natural resources. The state has had lots of experience with outside interests trying to control and exploit their resources, and then leaving residents of the state to clean up or live with the consequences or mess. That history has made Montanans both more wary, and skilled, in dealing with outsider corporations and individuals. The state also has a history of citizen politicians, who hold jobs besides their political ones and stay part of the community, as well as their tradition of community involvement.

As the documentary notes, this is not a Democrats versus Republicans fight, or conservative versus liberals, but a battle for local control of elections and public policy. Voters on both sides of the political aisle have railed against political ads funded by “out-of-state” interests. In this documentary, the Republican party is the target of this well-funded “dark money” effort to direct public policy in Montana on which Reed’s documentary focuses. One particular state senate race gets a lot of attention, but the documentary extends its focus to include other examples within the state and the national picture.

The key to this is dark money, the money funneled through non-profit 501c4 organizations that are not required to disclose their donors. “Follow the money” is an old phrase in newspapers but dark money thwarts the public’s right to know.  It prevents the public from finding out who is funding public efforts like direct mailings or political ads, information that can reveal motivations behind those political or public policy efforts, and who benefits from them. Legally, these campaigns are not supposed to coordinate with the politicians’ campaign, but the use of multiple organizations funded by dark money’s hidden donors can mask that coordination.

Director Kimberly Reed follows the story from multiple viewpoints, including journalists covering the Montana capital, various Republican citizen politicians, and the tiny Montana government agency tasked with overseeing their elections.

We also hear from a former member of the Federal Election Commission, the FEC, the national organization that is supposed enforce election laws, which reveals that lack of oversight is a national problem, and one spanning more than one presidential administration or party. The documentary takes a look at how 501c4 organizations through which dark money is funneled, such as Western Tradition Partnership, also known as American Tradition Partnership, and the National Right to Work campaign, which aims to get rid of unions. As one speaker notes, organizations like these aim to influence the outcome of elections because it “doesn’t want to lobby them (politicians) – it wants to own them right from the beginning.”

Reed does a masterful job pulling this all together, letting the people in Montana speak, and allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions about the national problem. Anyone who values democracy in this country should take a look at this revealing documentary.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars