Anti-Access Donors Tied to Dark Money Group

Coxcheck

Big money from James Cox Kennedy and Charles Schwab shows up in Montana Supreme Court race

Last month’s finding by the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices sheds new light on some shady, significantly large contributions by anti stream-access donors in a 2012 Supreme Court race.

Media mogul James Cox Kennedy and investor Charles Schwab both signed checks totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars to The Montana Growth Network, run by former State Sen. Jason Priest. (This guy.) Priest’s “dark money” group was registered as a tax-exempt, issue-advocacy group not required to report its spending or donors. However, Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl says the group violated campaign laws with ads supporting the winner of the 2012 state Supreme Court election, former District Judge Laurie McKinnon, and opposing the two other candidates.

Kennedy, of course, is the Ruby River ranch owner fighting steam access in the PLWA v Madison County case. Schwab, on the other hand, tried to curtail access in the Mitchell Slough case. Their winning candidate, Judge McKinnon, was part of the minority vote against the 2014 Supreme Court decision that went on to uphold Montana stream access law. Motl has forwarded his findings to a prosecutor for potential charges against the group.

Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily DrakeBy Tom Bie January 14, 2016

Tags: Daily Fly Fishing News

Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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