With less than a month left until the Nov. 5 election, third-party spending from abortion rights supporters in Montana’s races for seats on the state Supreme Court is surging.
On Tuesday, the national super PAC Planned Parenthood Votes completed the launch of a more than $1 million negative ad campaign against two nonpartisan candidates for the court: Cory Swanson, the Broadwater County Attorney campaigning for chief justice, and Dan Wilson, a Flathead area state district court judge running for associate justice.
Swanson is competing against former federal magistrate judge Jerry Lynch. Wilson is running against state district court judge Katherine Bidegaray. All four candidates have so far benefitted from significant outside spending by political action groups while sidestepping direct affiliation with political parties or special interests.
Planned Parenthood Votes announced the “seven-figure” spending on two 30-second digital and television ads in a press release. A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes declined to disclose how much each ad cost individually, details that may not become clear until new campaign spending reports are filed, but said that the package totaled roughly $1 million.
Planned Parenthood Votes announced in May its intention to partner with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee to spend at least $5 million on state Supreme Court races in Montana, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and North Carolina as other national conservative groups continue to back their preferred judicial candidates across the country.
“With our federal right to abortion eliminated, the Montana Supreme Court is more important than ever to protecting our reproductive freedom,” Quinn Leighton, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes in Montana, said in the Tuesday release about the group’s advertising package. “The justices we elect this year will be responsible not only for deciding critical cases on abortion access, but for interpreting any new amendment to our constitution that would safeguard our reproductive rights.”
In late August, the Republican State Leadership Committee’s Judicial Fairness Initiative also pledged a seven-figure investment in states with “target” judicial races, Montana among them, but did not list specific advertisements or investments.
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As third-party money surges in the background, the four nonpartisan candidates for the open positions on the Montana Supreme Court are convincing voters that their races are far from boring. While Bidegaray and her opponent, Wilson, have often tried to dispel the heated political rhetoric surrounding the judicial races, Swanson and Lynch have used it to power attacks against one another and defend their own reputations.
“The JFI’s planned seven-figure investment will ensure that conservative judges continue to have a voice on the courts and prevent liberals from using majorities to legislate their radical agendas from the bench,” the group said.
The Planned Parenthood Votes advertisements attack both Swanson and Wilson as potential threats to abortion access, birth control and other reproductive rights — characterizations a spokesperson for the super PAC based on endorsements and financial contributions from Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and the Montana Family Foundation, a conservative Christian advocacy organization that has long lobbied in favor of abortion restrictions.
The group pointed to Gianforte’s support of HR 681, the Life at Conception Act, when he served as Montana’s at-large representative in the U.S. House in 2017. As governor, Gianforte has signed several bills limiting abortion into law and encouraged the state Supreme Court to reverse the unanimous 1999 decision establishing legal abortion access under the Montana Constitution’s right to privacy. Gianforte has also signed laws allowing 12 months of continuous coverage for birth control and a requirement that insurers cover fertility preservation treatments for cancer patients.
Gianforte, other Republican elected officials and representatives of the Montana Family Foundation have repeatedly endorsed Swanson and Wilson in recent months. The Republican State Central Committee has also funded widespread mailing campaigns on behalf of both candidates. The title of one of the Planned Parenthood Votes ads, “Our Picks,” is pulled from comments made by Montana Family Foundation staff member Derek Oestreicher in a July podcast episode.
“For these two very important races in Montana, for chief justice and associate justice of our Supreme Court, we have two fantastic candidates. Cory Swanson for chief justice and Dan Wilson for associate justice. Those are our two picks. Those would be solid jurists. They will not be activist judges. And that’s really the difference we’re looking for,” Oestreicher said.
Swanson and Wilson have both said that the third-party support they’re receiving will not impact their ability to serve on the nonpartisan court with fairness and impartiality. The candidates reiterated those stances in Tuesday comments about the Planned Parenthood Votes advertising blitz.
“My legal opinion on any issue, any case, is solely based on my best understanding of the law and Constitution. No supporter or opponent can influence my judgment,” Swanson said. “Abortion policy is already set in case law and statute, and the people are about to vote on it again. I pledge to interpret the law fairly and correctly, period,” Swanson told Montana Free Press, referring to the ballot issue CI-128.
Wilson also rejected the advertisements’ framing of his judicial approach.
“Real judges don’t take a position on a case before it reaches their court. That’s why I have not pledged or promised any ruling to anyone — including to Planned Parenthood. That’s what makes me a real judge,” Wilson said. “Planned Parenthood wants to buy its preferred candidates their seats on the Supreme Court and they may succeed. But they will never own me. My allegiance belongs to Montana and the Constitution and that’s not up for auction or sale.”
Lynch and Bidegaray have made similar claims. Asked at recent judicial forums about support they are receiving from interest groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Wild Montana Voter Fund and Montana Constitutional Rights & Liberties Coalition, each has said they will uphold the state Constitution regardless of influence from outside groups or political interests.
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