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Sometime around lunchtime on Monday, staffers in Gov. Greg Gianforte’s office realized they had a public relations crisis on their hands.
Allegations about a confidential child protective case out of northeast Montana were all over the internet. Right-wing social media accounts, including one with 2.8 million followers, were accusing the Republican governor’s administration of something traitorous to the conservative gender identity cause: allowing child protective workers to “traffick” a transgender teenager across state lines to receive gender-affirming medical care, against the wishes of the teen’s parents.
As Montana Free Press reported Tuesday, very little of that narrative is true. According to legal filings and email correspondence shared with MTFP since October, the suicidal teen at the center of the case had been taken into the state’s protective custody after — and because — their parents resisted a psychiatric referral to an available bed in Wyoming. The medical referral was based on the child’s suicidal thoughts. The parents’ resistance was based on their fear that the child might be able to access gender-affirming treatments in Wyoming. The state’s affidavit indicates that state child protection workers were focused only on getting the youth into an appropriate mental health facility when no beds were available in-state. The document doesn’t mention anyone seeking transition-related care, which was at the time and remains legal for minors in Montana anyway.
But the social media firestorm based on the parents’ narrative was moving too fast to check facts. Instead, online conservative heavy-hitters wanted answers from the Republican leader of a state they considered to be on the right side — politically and morally — of the issue.
“If the story checks out, it’s shocking: the state is forcibly transitioning a child — not in California, but in Montana,” Christopher Rufo, a conservative writer and activist, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Montana?” wrote Elon Musk, that social media company’s current owner, in response to another post about the case from Libs of TikTok, an influential far-right account that specializes in fear-and-loathing-themed content about LGBTQ+ people.
“Yes. @GovGianforte needs to address this ASAP,” Libs of TikTok replied.
Gianforte’s team, which regularly shrugs off social media criticism from left-leaning Montanans without response, seemed to agree.
In an eight-part statement on X Monday afternoon, Gianforte said his office had looked into the issue and determined that state child protective workers “followed state policy and law in their handling of this tragic case,” but refrained from disclosing details about the matter.
Child welfare investigations and legal proceedings are sealed under Montana law, a fact that the Glasgow teenager’s parents have ignored as they’ve sought public support for their cause. But, as a senior administration official who spoke to MTFP the next day explained, the governor’s online response was meant to “set the record straight to the greatest extent possible.”
The official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said the governor’s ultimate goal was to prevent the online narrative — which suggests that Gianforte allowed the state to pursue gender-affirming care for a transgender minor and trample the rights of their parents — from flooding the conservative mediascape and the newsfeeds of his Montana constituents.
“Perception becomes reality,” the official said.
The governor’s calculated but vague response seemed to do little to quell the social media uproar. A number of outraged commenters responded by accusing Gianforte of betraying their version of conservative values.
“There was a time where you body-slammed obstacles that got in your way,” one commenter wrote on X, referencing Gianforte’s infamous introduction to national political discourse in 2017. “Get back there.”
“This thread should be a career-ender in gop politics,” another quipped. “I don’t care how many journalists you throw out of windows — if you are not standing up against this child-stealing mutilation cult, you have no business being a leader.”
It isn’t clear whether either poster is a Montana resident, but their messages were targeted at in-state voters. The “career-ender” commenter noted that Gianforte is up for re-election this year, and faces at least one challenger in this June’s primary election.
READ OUR FULL STORY: Gianforte rebuts far-right accusations about child protection case.
—Mara Silvers, Reporter
Temperature check 🌡️
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Following the Law ⚖️
The Montana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that plaintiffs in a successful court case challenging a 2021 election law are entitled to attorney fees, a decision that signals an increased willingness by the state’s high court to make the losing party pay attorney fees to the victor in constitutional litigation.
Under a common legal principle called the American Rule, each party in a case is responsible for their own attorney fees, regardless of who comes out on top. Montana courts have followed that rule, laying out few exceptions — namely if the lawsuit in question is not “garden variety” constitutional litigation, if the plaintiffs are bringing a case that vindicates the public’s constitutional rights, or if the state’s defense is frivolous or argued in bad faith.
This week, a 5-2 majority led by Chief Justice Mike McGrath ruled that Forward Montana v. State, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2021 election law, met those exceptions as “an obviously unlawful bill adopted through willful disregard of constitutional obligations and legislative rules and norms.”
One of the beneficiaries of that ruling is attorney Raph Graybill of Graybill Law Firm, who regularly brings constitutional lawsuits against the state or its officers. He said in an interview that the ruling will encourage state attorneys to be more responsible in the defense of its laws and practices.
Senate Bill 319 began as a tweak to campaign finance law but was amended late in the 2021 session in a free conference committee meeting nominally tasked with reconciling House and Senate versions of the bill. The new version of the bill introduced a number of restrictions on political campaigning.
After the bill was signed into law, advocacy group Forward Montana and others challenged it under the Montana Constitution’s single-subject provision. A district court ruled with the plaintiffs in early 2022, permanently blocking the last-minute provisions. The state did not appeal that ruling.
The plaintiffs then asked the court to award attorney fees, producing the subsidiary legal fight that was resolved this week.
The high court’s ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor wasn’t unanimous, though. Justice Jim Rice (a former Republican lawmaker) and Justice Dirk Sandefur (a frequent target of Republican ire against the court) united in a strongly worded dissent of the majority ruling.
“…the Court is using the Doctrine as a sword to punish the Legislature, to deter it from ‘wrongdoing,’ based in part on what I view as the Court’s revulsion at legislative ‘sausage-making.’ This is an inappropriate judicial consideration,” Rice wrote.
In an interview Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, echoed some of those same arguments and said the court had misinterpreted the Legislature’s operating rules.
Interpreting the Constitution is one thing, he said. “That’s their prerogative. But to turn around and accuse us of acting in bad faith, when they don’t even understand our rules, it’s wrong.”
—Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Reporter
The Viz 📈
As we’ve been reporting on NorthWestern Energy’s changing electric rates the past few months, one thought has popped up repeatedly: Man, those bills they mail us each month are confusing.
The state-regulated power utility, which serves about two-thirds of Montanans, kindly includes a detailed listing of its current power rates on its monthly statements. But you pretty much have to be a Public Service Commission analyst to make sense of all 19 of them, with labels ranging from “Res. Supply” to “Res. Electric Tax-Delivery” and “Res. USBC.”
We’re not utility analysts. But we are reporters — and occasionally too curious for our own good. So, with help from PSC staffers and other sources, we tracked down definitions for each of those rates and wrote a guide to deciphering your NorthWestern power bill, published earlier this week. While we were at it, we also did the math to show how those rates translate into a typical NorthWestern residential customer’s power bill:
With the exception of the flat-fee service charges, each of the charges shown here scales with your power consumption, measured in kilowatt-hours for electricity and in therms for natural gas. Additionally, the underlying rates change periodically (sometimes in the middle of billing cycles) as NorthWestern and the PSC, the state’s utility regulation board, hash out how much the company can charge customers.
At least as things stand under January 2024 rates, electric and gas supply charges, which compensate the company for the money it spends generating or buying power, represent the lion’s share of the bill. Transmission and distribution charges pegged to the cost of moving power from sources to customers are also a major share of the fee schedule.
Curious about those others (for example, what in the world “USBC” stands for)? Well, you’ll have to take a look at the full story.
READ MORE: How to decode your NorthWestern Energy bill.
— Eric Dietrich, Deputy Editor and Amanda Eggert, Reporter
Verbatim 💬
“I always say, money is the mother’s milk of politics, and Rosendale is thirsty.”
— Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, soliciting donations for Montana Congressman Matt Rosendale at an event in Helena last weekend. Gaetz was on the stump with Rosendale in several Montana towns and cities as Rosendale, a conservative hardliner, inches toward formally declaring a run for U.S. Senate.
Hot Potato 🥔
The June primary election is still months away, but it’s looming larger by the day for local election officials across Montana. Commissioners in Cascade County are certainly feeling that pressure. Having stripped Clerk and Recorder Sandra Merchant of her election duties in December, they’re now racing to appoint a non-elected election administrator. Candidate interviews begin next week, and Commissioner Joe Briggs hopes to have a new overseer installed by early March.
That objective would hit a snag if a citizen petition to reinstate Merchant’s duties gains traction. Petitioners are gathering signatures to put the question of repealing the commission’s December resolution to county voters. If they collect and certify enough signatures in the next week, Merchant will be reinstated for the June primary and that election will decide whether she stays there for the remainder of her original term. If not, petitioners still have until early March to get the question on the primary ballot, but the commission’s pending appointee will be the one running the show until the votes are tallied.
Commissioner Rae Grulkowski, who dissented in the 2-1 December commission vote, said she has “no problem” with the petition, noting her continued belief that Merchant’s removal was “flawed.” Meanwhile, Grulkowski’s involvement in hiring Merchant’s replacement has itself become a topic of frustration for some voters in Cascade County. A different group of citizens submitted a letter to the commission this week calling for Grulkowski to abstain from discussions about the appointment, noting the December resolution calls for any commissioner on an upcoming ballot to recuse themselves from election-related decisions.
Grulkowski is up for reelection this year, meaning her continued involvement in election business violates the resolution (which she opposed). She argued in an interview this week that requiring her to abandon her elected duties is “unlawful.” Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki told MTFP he’s not been asked to give a legal opinion on the matter.
—Alex Sakariassen, Reporter
On Our Radar 
Amanda — I’m a little late coming to this story by former MTFP intern Keely Larson, but I still immensely enjoyed her interview with literary giant and trained biologist Barbara Kingsolver and her daughter Lily.
Alex — Despondent over the utter lack of snow this winter, I’ve been turning lately to Missoula’s many bar trivia nights for reassurance that there’s more to life than skiing. That too can be demoralizing at times, but, as fellow Missoula writer and regular trivia teammate Kate Whittle wrote this week, “it’s not about winning the bar tab.”
Arren — I’ve been closely following the saga of the Messenger, an online news startup that seemed doomed from the start and pulled the plug this week. While I get a certain amount of schadenfreude from gawking at gazillionaires making bone-headed decisions, it’s important to remember the human toll of the corporate news industry’s collapse. This personal narrative from a Messenger writer in New York Magazine captures that.
Brad — My wife and I woke up last month to a broken dishwasher. I hate-read reviews in search of a replacement until my wife cut me off and ordered something reasonable from Lowe’s. Enter CRST Home Solutions, the Iowa-based company that contracts with Lowe’s to deliver and install appliances in Helena. They scheduled us for a week later, then canceled day-of, then rescheduled for two weeks after that. Now we haven’t eaten in days (because no clean dishes, obviously) and my only nourishment is hate-reading Yelp reviews of CRST Home Solutions.
JoVonne — There’s a cool project that is happening out of Montana State University Billings that showcases an Indigenous way of sharing tribal history and origin stories. The Missoulian’s Carly Graf reported that members of the Northern Cheyenne tribe are using a portable planetarium at the university to record and teach how constellations relate back to their culture.
Mara — The Montana Standard, part of Lee newspapers, published a haunting examination of the unkempt and often overlooked burial grounds surrounding the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs, where as many as 5,000 people are laid to rest. It’s so good I might read it again this weekend.
Eric — This YouTuber built a homemade contraption that lets her charge her cell phone with (really) steam power.
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