If you watched last month’s Democratic debates, the people onstage Tuesday evening will be familiar — except for one.
Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana just missed qualifying for the first set of debates, falling one poll short of the three 1 percent results he needed. But he later got his third poll and earned the spot vacated by Representative Eric Swalwell of California, who dropped out of the race this month.
Mr. Bullock has made money in politics the centerpiece of his campaign: It’s so central, in fact, that where other candidates have an “issues” or “policies” link, his website says, “One Big Idea.”
Here is a brief rundown of his proposal.
What’s the big idea?
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Mr. Bullock has vowed to sign an executive order that would require companies to disclose their political contributions in order to be eligible for federal contracts.
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He wants to require “super PACs” and similar groups to certify to the Internal Revenue Service that they are not spending foreign money on campaigns, and ultimately ban super PACs from elections altogether.
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He also wants to reverse the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which has allowed hundreds of millions of dollars of political contributions from corporations and wealthy individuals who don’t have to be publicly identified.
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Some elements of his plan are based on actions he has taken as governor. In 2015, he worked with Montana Republicans to require political action committees to identify their donors — a requirement he would like to extend nationwide. And last year, he sued the Trump administration to try to preserve similar rules for political nonprofits like the National Rifle Association and Planned Parenthood.
How he uses it
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Mr. Bullock’s premise is that “dark money” has so undermined public trust in the political system that the government cannot fix other problems without addressing this one first.
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He argues that many of the central problems in American society — like climate change, income inequality and lack of access to health care — are rooted in the influence of wealthy donors and corporate interests. “We all know we’ve got to do something about these problems,” he says on his website, “but Big Money has broken the political system’s power to take even the first step.”