Some prominent issues in which ATP has become involved include:
National monuments
In 2010, WTP filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to President Barack Obama's potential use of the Antiquities Act to establish as many as fourteen new national monuments, one of which may include the Vermillion Basin in Colorado, which has significant natural gas and other mineral resources. RepublicanCongressmenDoug Lamborn and Mike Coffman, both of Colorado, have concurrently introduced legislation to prevent any additional national monuments from being established in their state.[SUP][6][/SUP]
Emissions trading
ATP has strongly opposed legislation creating an emissions trading system in the United States, referring to such proposals as a "cap and tax." An online petition sponsored by ATP states that its position on emissions trading results from skepticism about global warming evidence and fears that such a system would lead to higher energy prices, higher government spending, lost jobs, and other economic costs.[SUP][7][/SUP]
Utility alternative energy regulation
ATP has vehemently opposed Colorado House Bill 1001 which would require public utilities to use alternative energy sources. The group says the proposed law would create job losses and higher utility bills. "The renewable energy standard forces utility companies to buy more expensive utilities, so then they have to cut back on hiring and lay people off," according to ATP executive director Ferguson.[SUP][8][/SUP] American Tradition said the standards were being implemented for the benefit of "politically-connected, higher-priced green' speculators." ATP initially planned to overturn the law via ballot initiative but soon turned away from that effort. The group says it will lobby to have the law changed in 2011.[SUP][9][/SUP]
Litigation
Montana Commissioner of Political Practices
In 2010, the Montana Commission of Political Practices ruled that ATP had broken state campaign laws by failing to register as a political committee or properly report its donors and spending. The commission investigation's revealed that the group had solicited unlimited contributions to support pro-mining, pro-logging and pro-development candidates in Montana and avoided disclosing the contributions.[SUP][2][/SUP]
The opinion issued by Commissioner Dennis Unsworth in October 2010 followed investigation of a complaint filed in 2008 by an attorney from Great Falls. The complaint accused ATP of not properly disclosing financial information related to fliers it released that criticized a state senator. The opinion examined connections between ATP, a small group of political action committees, candidates for public office, and discrepancies in the campaign finance disclosures.[SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP]
In response, ATF filed suit challenging the ruling. The lawsuit alleged a violation of ATP's federal constitutional right to free speech and a state constitutional right to privacy. The suit demanded that all complaints against ATP be dismissed. Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Dennis Unsworth (who issued the contested ruling), the state attorney general, and prosecutors in Cascade and Lewis and Clark counties were named as defendants in the action.[SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP]
ATP criticized Unsworth for exceeding his authority by including names of organizations and individuals in his ruling without presenting any evidence of wrongdoing on their part. "Indeed, the commissioner's opinion itself finds no evidence of coordination," ATP wrote. "Yet, the opinion drags the names of ATP's counsel, the Republican Party, numerous political candidates, persons associated with different organizations, and lawful businesses into the mix and alleges that there is."[SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP]
John Sinrud, a former Bozeman lawmaker who worked with ATP in 2008, accused Unsworth of using a double standard, saying ATP's behavior was legal and that several union and conservation groups heavily involved in Montana politics used similar tactics. "Commissioner Unsworth is selectively going after organizations that do not meet his political muster," he said. "He should just stick to the facts and that's not what he's doing. He's violated his oath of office of being nonpartisan."[SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP]
Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana
Main article: Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana
In October 2010, District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ruled that the Montana Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, which prohibited independent expenditures to influence political campaigns by corporations, is unconstitutional. ATP had challenged the law after the United States Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling.[SUP][13][/SUP] WTP was joined in its suit by Champion Painting and the Montana Shooting Sports Association.[SUP][14][/SUP] Ruling Judge Sherlock said he agreed with U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, who overturned a similar ban in Minnesota. Magnuson wrote that Citizens United "is unequivocal: The government may not prohibit independent and indirect corporate expenditures on political speech."[SUP][15][/SUP]
In Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana, 2011 MT 328, the Montana Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the broad protections given to corporations in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission do not apply to Montana's campaign finance laws.[SUP][16][/SUP] The US Supreme Court June 25 summarily reversed the Montana Supreme Court ruling.[SUP][17][/SUP]
Longmont
In 2009, ATP sued the city of Longmont, Colorado, seeking to prevent enforcement of the Longmont Fair Campaign Practices Act (LFCPA). An injunction suspending enforcement of the regulations was granted in October 2009, after as Senior U.S. District Judge Walker Miller held that ATP and its co-plaintiffs would likely prevail.[SUP][18][/SUP] The LFCPA was revised in 2009 after a 2008 special election where a city council member received a $5,000 contribution from the Longmont Association of Realtors. The 2009 changes mandated that contributors' identities, contribution amounts, and other information must be disclosed in campaign advertisements.[SUP][18][/SUP]
The suit was settled out of court in December 2009 with the town paying the plaintiffs $68,500. As part of the settlement, the city agreed to propose changing the contested portions of the LFCPA, which were subsequently repealed by the city council.[SUP][19][/SUP]
In 2011, documents allegedly stolen from a car and found in a Colorado meth house revealed the inner workings of WTP/ATC, including possible illegal coordination with Republican candidates. The organization contacted the FBI after Colorado Democrats trafficked the stolen materials across state lines to Montana Democrats. After the FBI was contacted the Montana Commission on Political Practices restricted access to the materials, under which restriction the materials remain "public and reviewable upon request." [SUP][21][/SUP]
WTP/ATP bills itself as "a no-compromise grassroots organization dedicated to fighting the radical environmentalist agenda." The group promotes development of land, water and natural resources in the Rocky Mountain West and throughout the United States. It promotes free-market economics.[SUP][4][/SUP] It says on its website that
Dozens of radical eco-organizations whose stated purpose is to dismantle the free enterprise system and our Constitutionally protected rights through so-called environmental protection have set their sights on robbing Americans of the right to exist, achieve and produce.[SUP][5][/SUP]
An article in the October 22, 2010 Montana Missoulian reported that the Western Tradition Partnership broke state campaign laws when it mailed fliers attacking legislative candidates in the run-up to an election without registering as a political committee and publicly disclosing the source and disposition of its funds. A two-year investigation of the group uncovered a PowerPoint presentation created in 2010 that said the group planned to spend $537,000 on Montana elections that year. The state Commission of Political Practices said the group should pay civil penalties and face further investigation. [SUP][15][/SUP] 2012 Political Activity
Citizens United and Campaign Finance
American Tradition Partnership was at the center of much political activity in 2012. Most prominently, the group helped the Supreme Court underscore their Citizens United decision by suing the state of Montana, overturning century-old campaign-finance disclosure laws. The U.S. Supreme Court upended and reversed Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana, a case where the Montana Supreme Court decided Citizens United did not apply to Montana's thorough campaign finance laws.[SUP][16][/SUP]
In the federal court's 5-4 decision, the minority declared "Even if I were to accept Citizens United, this court's legal conclusion should not bar the Montana Supreme Court's finding, made on the record before it, that independent expenditures by corporations did in fact lead to corruption or the appearance of corruption in Montana. Given the history and political landscape in Montana, that court concluded that the state had a compelling interest in limiting independent expenditures by corporations," said Justice Steven Breyer. He added, "Montana's experience, like considerable experience elsewhere since the court's decision in Citizens United, casts grave doubt on the court's supposition that independent expenditures do not corrupt or appear to do so."[SUP][17][/SUP]
In the Montana court's 5-2 decision, writing for the majority, Chief Justice Mike McGrath noted a century ago "the state of Montana and its government were operating under a mere shell of legal authority, and the real social and political power was wielded by powerful corporate managers to further their own business interests. The voters had more than enough of the corrupt practices and heavy-handed influence asserted by the special interests controlling Montana's political institutions."[SUP][18][/SUP]
Montana state attorneys think in challenging various campaign laws, American Tradition Partnership instead violated the laws.[SUP][19][/SUP] Mike Black, an assistant attorney general defending the state against a lawsuit from ATP, said the state believes that ATP is a front for political money that wants to illegally hide its identity and spending activity. "We believe it was a sham from the beginning," he notes. ATP has been fighting in court for two years against a state ruling that it is a political committee, and therefore must publicly report its campaign-related spending and financial donors.
American Tradition Partnership started a "newspaper" in 2012, The Montana Statesman. The paper ran front-page articles attacking state Attorney General Steve Bullock, who was prosecuting them while he was also running for Governor. It accused Bullock of failing to prosecute child molesters. Other stories attacked the state auditor, a Supreme Court candidate and the secretary of state. Republican Complaints of Illegal Coordination in the GOP Primary
Two Republican legislators who won primary elections despite a barrage of third-party attacks have filed political practices complaints against American Tradition Partnership and others.[SUP][20][/SUP] Sen. Bruce Tutvedt of Kalispell, and Rep. John Esp of Big Timber argued that ATP illegally coordinated efforts with their primary election opponents. Tutvedt, who survived a close primary challenge in June, filed a complaint against his opponent, Rollan Roberts II, and American Tradition Partnership, Taxpayers for Liberty and the National Association for Gun Rights.
Tutvedt said he was attacked by 10 separate mailers, which, like his opponent's direct mail, all came from the same mail order house in Loveland, Colo. These included mailers from ATP, Taxpayers for Liberty and the National Association for Gun Rights. In addition, a letter from Rollan Roberts's wife, printed on pink stationery, was sent to voters, "per Christian LeFer," a former ATP official, Tutvedt said. LeFer's wife, Allison, who at one time signed most of ATP's checks, owns a printing company that shared a post office box address with ATP[SUP][citation needed][/SUP]. Tutvedt said Roberts' website and numerous mailings never indicated their source of funding. "I have real problems with dark money," Tutvedt said in an interview with The Missoulian.
Esp filed two separate complaints arising from his 2010 primary. One was against Direct Mail and Western Tradition Partnership. "I just think dark money is a problem in the election process (in) that you can have anonymous money (spent) that doesn't have to tell the truth." Esp said, "It's time for them to play fair if they're going to play in politics. If the rest of us have to follow the rules, there's no reason why they shouldn't have to follow the rules too."[SUP][citation needed][/SUP] Esp alleged that at a candidate forum in Big Timber in May 2010, a number of people associated with ATP and his opponent's campaign manager "seemed to arrive together and hung out together throughout the event." He said they included Allison LeFer, whose Direct Mail company worked for his opponent's campaign; a young woman working for Christian LeFer; his opponent's campaign manager; an unidentified young man who was introduced to Esp by Allison LeFer and told he was working for a sportsmen's rights group; and others. ATP, the sportsmen's group and others "were sending out mailings negative to my campaign," Esp said, alleging illegal coordination. Funding
The group says it is supported entirely by members.[SUP][21][/SUP] IRS status and 990 Forms
On January 4, 2013, it was announced that executive director Danny Ferguson left the group to become the spokesman for Texas Republican Representative Steve Stockman.[SUP][22][/SUP] By Montana enforcing the law, Ferguson said that "illegal actions" of the state have caused "significant hardship" for ATP.[SUP][23][/SUP] Board of Directors
According to the group's 2011 990 form, its unpaid directors are:[SUP][3][/SUP]
↑ Kaye Fissinger (2010-02-12). What's behind this curtain?. Free Range Longmont. Retrieved on 2011-11-05. "[Gessler is] Registered agent for the Montana organization Western Tradition Partnership"
↑TRACER - Committee Detail - WESTERN TRADITION PARTNERSHIP EDUCATION FUND. Colorado Secretary of State. Retrieved on 2011-11-05. "Committee ID: 20105018765 - Physical Address: PO BOX 88 - Committee Type: 527 Political Organization - Date Registered: 10/13/2010 - Phone: 888-987-8721 [ATP's phone#] - Purpose: TO SUPPORT OR OPPOSE CANDIDATES BASED ON POSITION ON ENVIRONMENTAL AND BUSINESS ISSUES. - Registered Agent: MARIO DANIEL NICOLAIS II Phone: 303-534-4317 - Email: ...@HACKSTAFFGESSLER.COM"
↑ American Tradition Partnership, Inc. FKA Western Tradition Partnership, Inc., et al. v. Steve Bullock, Attorney General of Montana, et al., Supreme Court decision, http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11p...79h9j3.pdf, June 25, 2012
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
