Contours, WFF and Way Back appear in overlapping 2026 multistate PAC funding and political-research channels

Current 2026 reporting and primary records extend the Contours→Western Futures→Way Back architecture beyond Idaho into a multistate political-support network, while still falling short of proving common legal control. Inside Elections' August 2026 investigation, based on tax and FEC records, reports that super PAC efforts supporting independent Montana Senate candidate Seth Bodnar received aggregate funding across the relevant PACs from Contours ($2.6M), Western Futures Fund ($825K), Global Impact Social Welfare Fund ($200K), Way Back PAC ($900K), and American Values Project PAC ($200K). The article also reports at least $750,000 in Contours→WFF grants during 2025. That latter figure is significant because Contours' Sept. 4, 2025 IRS response independently documents only one WFF grant at that date, $350,000; if the Inside Elections figure is accurate, at least $400,000 of additional Contours→WFF grant funding occurred or was later reported after the Sept. 4 response. The exact later grant document has not yet been reproduced and remains an open primary-source target. Primary FEC data independently confirm Montana Freedom PAC was registered March 17, 2026 and reported $2.0915M receipts through June 30, including $900,000 in contributions from other committees; Way Back's Apr. 1–Jun. 3 filing independently lists a $150,000 'Other Disbursement' to Montana Freedom PAC. Thus at least one direct Way Back→Montana Freedom transfer is primary/FEC-derived verified, but the full $900,000 Way Back aggregate described by Inside Elections spans the larger pro-Bodnar PAC network and should not be assigned solely to Montana Freedom without transaction-level reconciliation. Contours' own Sept. 4, 2025 IRS response also establishes that the organization spent $49,990 year-to-date on political-campaign research/polling and $25,600 on candidate recruitment; it sponsored likely-voter polls in TN-07, MT-01 and NV-02, tested incumbents against actual/prospective opposition candidates or hypothetical profiles, and stated results were generally used internally to inform future programmatic time/expenditure decisions. Inside Elections reports that by 2026 Contours had publicly commissioned additional race polling. Separately, the investigation reports recurring funder and professional overlap among other 2026 super PACs: Wheel Dog reported Sixteen Thirty, Contours, Global Impact and Way Back support; Government That Works reported donors including Sixteen Thirty, Global Impact, Contours, WFF and Way Back, with Responsive Government Action (a New Venture Fund affiliate) its largest donor; and multiple PACs listed Jorge Badillo as treasurer. These facts support an operational-network hypothesis worth tracing transaction-by-transaction. They do NOT establish that Sixteen Thirty, Contours, WFF, Way Back, New Venture Fund or shared professionals centrally control all recipient PACs/candidates, that the same dollars can be followed through pooled nonprofit accounts, or that the network's Idaho activities were directed by the same actors responsible for activities in Montana or other states.