How a Montana Political Network Evolved From Gathering Progressive Dollars to Washing Their
Origins

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This  analysis  traces  a  network  of  Montana-based  political  organizations  that  share  identical  leadership, banking,  and  infrastructure.  Public  filings  reveal  that  these  entities  moved  beyond  simply  collecting contributions  from  progressive-aligned  donors.  They  constructed  a  multi-layered  structure  whose apparent  purpose  is  to  sever  the  traceable  connection  between  original  funding  sources  and  the  political expenditures those funds ultimately support.

Every claim in this document is sourced from publicly available records: Montana Secretary of State annual reports,  C-2  Statements  of  Organization  filed  with  the  Montana  Commissioner  of  Political  Practices,  IRS Form 990 filings, FEC disclosures via Open Secrets, and professional profiles.

1. The Structure: Four Entities, Two Operators

At the center of this network sit two men: Ross Fitzgerald and Roger A. Hagan. They serve as treasurer and deputy treasurer, respectively, of three separate political committees, and Hagan serves as registered agent and officer of a fourth. All four entities bank at First Interstate Bank. All four share Helena P.O. Box mailing  addresses.  Two  of  the  four  were  registered  on  the  same  day  and  amended  the  next  day  with identical structure.

Three  of  the  four  entities  are  classified  as  incidental  committees  organized  under  IRC  §501(c)(4).  This classification  means  they  face  no  obligation  to  publicly  disclose  the  identity  of  their  donors.  The fourth—Conservatives4MT—is an independent political committee that makes direct election expenditures and must disclose its contributors. But when its contributor list shows only the names of the three affiliated entities, the disclosure is a dead end.

2. The Wash: $94,000 in a Single Day

On March 9, 2026, Conservatives4MT received three transfers totaling $94,000:

Two  of  the  three  are  formally  coded  as  affiliated-organization  transfers  (type  6),  confirming  these  are  not arm’s-length  transactions  but  coordinated  moves  within  a  single  network.  The  money  arrives  at Conservatives4MT  fully  washed:  the  public  disclosure  shows  the  intermediary  names,  but  the  original donors who funded Treasure State Stewards, Big Sky Fiscal Guardians, and MT Business Advocates are invisible. That is the point.

Eight  days  later,  on  March  17,  the  Trial  Lawyers  Legislative  PAC  added  another  $75,000.  In  total,Conservatives4MT took in $169,000 in political money within a single eight-day window.

3. The Deeper Pipeline: National Dark Money Into Montana

The  local  Montana  structure  does  not  exist  in  isolation.  It  connects  to  a  well-documented  national infrastructure  for  moving  political  money  through  layers  of  nonprofit  intermediaries.  The  supporting documents reveal overlapping personnel and fund flows linking Montana operations to national progressive dark money networks.

Global Impact’s social welfare fund arm contributed $500,000 to Way Back PAC(Sheridan, WY) on 10/10/2024. Way  Back  PAC,  in  turn,  contributed  $250,000  to  Guarantee  PAC  on  10/28/2024.  Way  Back  PAC  itself received $150,000 from the Western Futures Fund (Sheridan, WY)—a 501(c)(4) that spent $2.675 million across  multiple  political  committees  in  2023-2024,  including  $1.5  million  to  Your  Community PAC and $970,000 to Retire Career Politicians.

The Montana Nexus: Fireweed Campaigns

The Western Futures Fund’s Form 990 reveals that one of its three highest-paid independent contractors is Fireweed  Campaigns  Inc  (PO  Box  87,  Helena,  MT  59624),  which  received  $107,500  for  “project management.”

Fireweed Campaigns is registered with the Montana Secretary of State (File D1414685, filed 01/07/2026). Its sole director and president is Lauren Caldwell—who simultaneously serves as the Political Director of the  Montana  Federation  of  Public  Employees  (MFPE),  one  of  Montana’s  most  influential  progressive organizations. The annual report was signed by Kiah Abbey, whose LinkedIn profile shows she serves as board Treasurer of the Montana Abortion Access Program, was Secretary of the Missoula Tenants Union, and  previously  worked  as  Montana  Voices  Program  Director  at  the  Western  Organization  of  Resource Councils.

This  means  a  Wyoming-based  dark  money  entity  (Western  Futures  Fund)  is  paying  a  Montana consulting firm run by MFPE’s political director and staffed by progressive organizers—and that firm operates out of a Helena P.O. Box.

4. Shared Personnel Bridge the Gap

The connections between the local Montana conduit structure and the broader progressive network are not limited to financial flows. Key individuals appear across multiple entities:

• Ted  Kronebusch  serves  as  a  director  of  both  Treasure  State  Stewards  (one  of  the  three  conduit entities)  and  Montanans  for  Election  Reform  Action  Fund,  a  501(c)(4)  whose  stated  purpose  is advocating  for  election  reforms  including  ballot  initiatives  CI-126  and  CI-127.  All  seven  directors  of Montanans for Election Reform Action Fund share the same P.O. Box (Box 315, Helena, MT 59624).

• Bruce Tutvedt is a director of Montanans for Election Reform Action Fund and also serves as the registered  agent  of  Big  Sky  Fiscal  Guardians  (one  of  the  three  conduit  entities).  He  appears  as  a director of Big Sky Fiscal Guardians on its 2026 annual report.

• Ross  Fitzgerald  is  treasurer  of  Conservatives4MT,  Treasure  State  Stewards,  and  Big  Sky  Fiscal Guardians—and is also a director of both Treasure State Stewards and Big Sky Fiscal Guardians.

• Roger  A.  Hagan  is  deputy  treasurer  of  Conservatives4MT,  Treasure  State  Stewards,  and  Big  Sky Fiscal Guardians; registered agent and officer of MT Business Advocates for Sensible Elections; and signed  the  2026  annual  reports  for  Treasure  State  Stewards,  Big  Sky  Fiscal  Guardians,  and  MT Business Advocates. He signed from 117 Gerber Road, Great Falls, using the same phone and email across every filing.

• Caitie (Osborne) Butler worked as Director of Communications for Montanans for Election Reform (Jan 2024 – Aug 2025), then moved directly to Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts as Spokesperson (Aug  2025  –  present).  The  election  reform  initiative  she  promoted  (CI-126/CI-127)  is  the  same  cause listed in the purpose statement of Montanans for Election Reform Action Fund, whose directors overlap with the conduit entities.

5. The Evolution: From Collection to Concealment

Taken together, the public record tells a story of deliberate evolution:

Phase 1 — Open collection. Progressive-aligned organizations and wealthy national donors contribute openly  to  PACs  and  advocacy  groups.  FEC  records  show  millions  flowing  from  donors  like  Kathryn Murdoch  ($4.25M  to  Unite  America  PAC),  Michael  Bloomberg  ($2.5M),  Marc  Merrill  ($2.6M),  Arthur Blank  ($2M),  and  the  Walton  and  Arnold  families—all  to  vehicles  focused  on  election  reform,  open primaries, and similar progressive priorities.

Phase  2  —  Layered  intermediaries.  Money  moves  through  layers  of  nonprofit  intermediaries  that progressively  obscure  its  origin.  Arabella  network groups granted  $18.4M  to  Global  Impact. Global Impact’s social welfare arm contributes $500K to Way Back PAC. Way Back PAC passes $250Kto Guarantee PAC. Western Futures Fund distributes $2.67M across multiple committees. At each step, the connection to the original donor becomes harder to trace.

Phase  3  —  The  Montana  wash.  By  the  time  money  reaches  Montana,  it  has  been  filtered  through enough  501(c)(4)  and  incidental  committee  layers  that  the  original  donor  identity  is  gone.  Treasure State  Stewards,  Big  Sky  Fiscal  Guardians,  and  MT  Business  Advocates  for  Sensible  Elections—all controlled  by  the  same  two  men,  all  banking  at  the  same  institution—receive  funds  from  sources  the public cannot see. On a single day, they pass $94,000 to Conservatives4MT, which spends it directly on Montana  elections.  The  disclosure  reports  show  three  organization  names.  The  actual  donors  are invisible.

6. What the Public Cannot See

When a Montana voter looks up who is funding Conservatives4MT, they find:

• $38,000 from “MT Business Advocates for Sensible Elections” — an entity whose C-2 filing from 2000lists no treasurer, no bank, and no officers. It discloses nothing about where its $38,000 came from.
• $34,000 from “Treasure State Stewards” — a 501(c)(4) that was created in 2026, registered its C-2 on March  12,  amended  it  March  13,  and  transferred  $34,000  to  Conservatives4MT  on  March  9—three days before filing its C-2. It discloses nothing about where its $34,000 came from.
• $22,000 from “Big Sky Fiscal Guardians” — another 2026-vintage 501(c)(4) with the same treasurer, deputy treasurer, and bank. Same timeline. Same opacity. It discloses nothing about where its $22,000came from.
• $75,000 from “Trial Lawyers Legislative PAC” — unlike the other three, this is a disclosed contribution from an identifiable source.

The  voter  sees  four  names.  One  is  transparent.  Three  are  walls.  Behind  those  walls,  the  money  trail disappears  into  a  network  of  501(c)(4)  organizations  that  connect  to  national  dark  money  infrastructure spanning from the Arabella Advisors network in Washington, D.C. to a consulting firm in a Helena P.O. Box run by the political director of Montana’s largest public employee union.

7. Critical Timeline

Note  the  sequencing:  the  $94,000  in  transfers  occurred  on  March  9—three  days  before  Big  Sky Fiscal Guardians and Treasure State Stewards even filed their C-2 Statements of Organization. The money  moved  before  the  committees  formally  registered  with  the  Commissioner  of  Political Practices.

8. Conclusion

This  is  not  a  case  of  organizations  that  happen  to  share  a  treasurer.  This  is  a  purpose-built  structure  in which multiple 501(c)(4) entities—controlled by the same two individuals, using the same bank, filing on the same days—exist to receive money from undisclosed sources and pass it to an independent committee that spends on Montana elections.

The  network  has  evolved.  Its  operators  are  no  longer  content  to  simply  collect  from  progressive-aligned donors whose identities might eventually surface through FEC filings or 990 schedules. They have built a washing  machine:  money  enters  through  501(c)(4)  entities  with  no  donor  disclosure,  passes  through affiliated-organization transfers, and emerges as “contributions” to an independent committee whose public filings show nothing but the names of the intermediary shells.

The public filings are all there. The shared officers are documented. The fund flows are on the record. The timeline  speaks  for  itself.  The  only  thing  that  remains  hidden  is  the  one  thing  this  entire  structure  was designed to hide: who is actually paying for Montana’s elections.

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Sources Montana Secretary of State: 2026 Annual Reports for Treasure State Stewards (B1569-0597), Big Sky Fiscal Guardians(B1569-1237), MT Business Advocates for Sensible Elections (B1525-3490), Montanans for Election Reform Action Fund(B1436-6473), Fireweed Campaigns Inc. (B1530-4533). Montana Commissioner of Political Practices: C-2 Statements for Conservatives4MT, Treasure State Stewards, Big Sky Fiscal Guardians, MT Business Advocates for Sensible Elections; financial disclosure records for Conservatives4MT. IRS Form 990: Western Futures Fund Inc. (via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer). FEC/Open Secrets: Donor records for Guarantee PAC, Unite America PAC, Way Back PAC; Western Futures Fund donor detail. LinkedIn professional profiles. MFPE staff directory. Women’s Public Leadership Network FAQ page.