Steve Bullock

Register Opinion contributor

On Wednesday, I took the Trump administration to court to defend the integrity of our elections.

Why? In 2018, the same day Trump was meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Trump administration repealed a rule in place since the 1970s requiring dark money groups to disclose their biggest donors to the IRS. These groups are some of the biggest spenders in our elections, and their influence has corrupted our politics and our policies for far too long.

Trump’s new dark money loophole pours gasoline on a fire that has raged out of control since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

That didn’t sit right with me then — and it doesn’t sit right with me now. It’s why I’m using the rule of law to take on President Trump and stand up for our democratic rights.

So, why should Iowans care? The debate around this lawsuit touches nearly every aspect of our elections, our government, and the concerns I hear from Iowa families as I visit communities across the state.

These dark money groups spend millions to sway our elections, yet they refuse to reveal where the money comes from. Before the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United, these groups accounted for about two percent of outside spending in our elections. Now it’s more than half.

Trump’s dark money loophole is telling these secretive groups that they don’t even have to disclose the source of their funding to the IRS. It opens the door not only to significantly more spending by corporations and wealthy donors, but also to potential spending by foreign entities.

This is a direct threat to our core belief that the people should decide elections.

Here in Iowa, there is a rich bipartisan history of legislating with a focus on putting people first. But much like the rest of the country, corporate donors have flooded local elections with dark money to buy public offices and crowded out the peoples’ voice.

Unfortunately, the results are clear. Dark money groups like the Koch Brothers used the dead of night to tear away 40 years of bipartisan collective bargaining rights.

They rammed through a fiscally unsustainable tax bill that benefits those at the top, not working families.

They weakened water quality legislation.

And the truth is, under current laws, they can get away with it. Iowa and the rest of our country have seen our government auctioned off to the highest bidder, and most of the time we don’t even know who’s writing the check.

This means that everyday issues like ensuring we have good schools, affordable healthcare, clean air and clean water, the right to collectively bargain — all take a back seat to corporate interests.

In Montana, I took this fight head-on. I argued the first challenge to Citizens United all the way to the Supreme Court. As governor, I passed some of the strongest campaign disclosure laws in the country and banned foreign money in our elections.

If we can kick the Koch Brothers out of Montana's elections, we can do it in Iowa and in states across the country.

This fight is so much bigger than one election. It’s for my three young kids and the world they will inherit.

It’s for the teachers whose rights have been kicked to the curb at every turn.

It’s for the overworked and under-appreciated minimum wage workers who can’t afford rent in areas with quality schools, good healthcare, and healthy, fresh food.

I’m not naive enough to think that one court case will fix everything. But the stakes are too high for us not to act.

Steve Bullock is the governor of Montana and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.