Montana Governor Won't Run For Re-Election

Fox News Online ^ | 8/13/03 | AP

[TheBigB]

HELENA, Mont.

[TheBigB]

The story didn't mention it, but Martz is a Republican.

[JennysCool]

That's rare! Usually the lead on a story like this would be something like "Republican governor Judy Martz, a member of the GOP..."

[GiveEmDubya]

She probably would have lost re-election anyway.

Her Democrat opponent came close to beating Sen. Conrad Burns in 2000 and would have cakewalked with Martz' low popularity.

The chances of the GOP holding the seat have vastly improved.

[TheBigB]

So who will run for the GOP?

[Kuksool]

MT Governor Race Ping.

[Kuksool]

I think the MT Secretary of State will run.

[Ann Archy]

Gov. Wise (D) of W.Va. has a GIRLFRIEND....he happens to be married.......maybe he's running for PRESIDENT!!

[JohnnyZ]

"I have accomplulling a possible candidacy for months.

Well that's her problem, can't forms words in English!

This is good news, and expected. I wonder whether Karl Ohs or Bob Brown (?) would be better?

[Nightbird]

Don't know about Ohs, but Bob Brown is a liberal. I'm pulling for Rob Natelson to make another go of it.

[GiveEmDubya]

Probably the Lt. Governor (Karl Ohs).

[JohnnyZ]

Don't know about Ohs, but Bob Brown is a liberal.

First time I've heard that, but I can't say I follow Montana politics that closely :)

I do know he's well known and very popular.

[JohnnyZ]

Helena, MT (LifeNews.com) -- Several leading pro-life elected officials and pro-life advocates have announced their candidacies for various races in the 2004 election cycle.

Secretary of State Bob Brown, who spent 26 years in the legislature, announced his candidacy for Governor and named pro-life state Rep. Dave Lewis of Helena as his running mate.

Brown sponsored a bill in the state Senate to require abortion facilities to notifiy parents before they could perform an abortion on a teenage girl. The bill become law but was overturned following a pro-abortion lawsuit. The state Supreme Court misused the right to privacy clause in the state's constitution and interpreted it as allowing a broad right to abortion, according to Montana Right to Life.

Both Brown and Lewis compiled 100% pro-life voting records during their tenure in the legislature.

He doesn't sound too liberal on social issues. The article goes on to praise GOP chair Ken Miller and sen. Tom Keating, two other announced candidates, as strongly pro-life.

He has also brought conservative Democrats into the GOP fold:

Led by Secretary of State Bob Brown, a likely GOP candidate for governor, Republicans are welcoming union leaders to their conventions like long-lost friends and future allies.

At Montana’s convention, Don Serba of Missoula, special projects director of Local 8-0885 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE), drew a standing ovation for his speech.

So did Jim McGarvey, president of the Montana AFL-CIO and vice-president of the MEA-MFT, a union of education and government employees, when he spoke at the state GOP convention two years ago.

Brown was the go-between who arranged for the men to speak.

And last year, Brown invited a couple of former Democratic Senate leaders, Bill Norman of Missoula and Terry Murphy of Cardwell, to the GOP convention where they announced they were switching parties.

In his speech last weekend, Brown suggested these Democrats are willing to address Republicans because they believe the state Democratic Party listens more to obstructionists than to working people. He said blue-collar Democrats share Republicans’ desire for good-paying jobs, their support of gun owners’ rights, their opposition to abortion and their reverence for the flag.

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In fact, Bob Brown seems pretty awesome. Is there any evidence for the "liberal" claim?

[Theodore R.]

MT governors are usually Democrats, as with nearby WY and WA. Conservative states do not translate into Republican governorships, as we well know.

[mrbillxx]

Actually Montana has had a republican gov since 1989.

Stan Stephens 1989-1993 Republican
Marc Racicot 1993-2001 Republican
Judy Martz 2001- Republican

and 6 out of their last 9 have been Republican.

[Theodore R.]

I think it was the 60s and 70s when "the democracy" prevailed in MT. And they had no Republican senators from the time of Eisenhower up until Conrad Burns, elected 1988. Burns has been "growing in office" lately too.

What happened to Stephens?

[Nightbird]

You cited the evidence yourself. He's "reaching out" to Big Labor, trying to appease them in the hopes that they won't be so hard on Republicans in the future. Of course that never works.

Why is he orchestrating events with union bosses of government workers and educrats? As a conservative I want to eliminate many of their jobs and take away much of the power that exists in their agencies. I guess he doesn't.

So he's pro-life. That is great, don't get me wrong. But anyone who cares knows that Big Labor is the funding mechanism for the Democrat party and all sorts of left-wing causes.

Ask him one question. Montana is not a Right to Work state. If the legislature passed a Right to Work law, would he sign it? The answer looks like no to me.

Any Republican who fails to recognize the destructive cycle of compulsory unionism loses my support, and wears the liberal tag as far as I go.

[mrbillxx]

I'm not sure what happened to Stephens, but I do remember that he became ill and withdrew from the race in 1992 and Racicot entered the race at that time. Stephens is probably quite old now. He was also born in Canada.

Yes..Republican Montana senators are few and far between.
Conrad Burns is quite popular now. And Baucus could be vulnerable with a good candidate against him. He is not wildly popular.

[JohnnyZ]

He's "reaching out" to Big Labor, trying to appease them in the hopes that they won't be so hard on Republicans in the future.

Well, you're entitled to your spin on the facts. I doubt Labor is that Big in Montana, and those union members are the conservative Democrats that have been so prevalent in Montana, and why Montana has something of a Democrat majority. They are exactly the people who should be voting Republican, for exactly the reasons Bob Brown mentioned: they're socially conservative, they love America, and they want successful economic policy.

Some courting of union leaders keeps them from being rabidly anti-Republican. I see no evidence of any policy shift. Union leaders should be Republican and should endorse Republican candidates to represent their members.

Attacking unions at the expense of losing thousands of voters who agree with the Republican Party on most every other issue is just ridiculous. We can be pro-Right-to-Work without being anti-union.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Good thing she's not running, she would have gotten beat like a rented mule. Whoever runs in her place will have a good shot of beating Dr. Canada.

[Kuksool]

In 2000, Bush won MT, 58-33. Next year, Bush should provide big coat-tails to the GOP nominee.