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It wasn’t until the very end of their hour-long forum in Bozeman Wednesday night that state Supreme Court candidates Amy Eddy and Dan Wilson traded barbs.
First, Wilson informed the audience of 50 or so people gathered in a Montana State University lecture hall that he is opposed to accepting endorsements or donations from attorneys — this after Eddy had touted her endorsements from several past and present state Supreme Court justices.
Both Eddy and Wilson are Flathead County District Court judges.
“It was a very intentional decision on my part not to seek endorsements from fellow judges, because I know what a difficult spot I can put them in. Likewise, I did not seek financial contributions from attorneys, and sent them a letter early on saying, ‘I understand what a difficult position you’re in if you’re asked to support one candidate for a judicial seat over another.’ And so I asked them merely to follow their conscience and do what they thought was best in the race.”
“Seek” might be the word doing most of the work in Wilson’s statement, as campaign finance records show donors identified by occupation as judges and attorneys among Wilson’s contributors, and among Eddy’s as well.
Eddy then said that, in order to protect the nonpartisanship of Montana’s judicial elections and avoid undermining public trust in judicial impartiality, she hasn’t received funding from a political party or attended political party events. Indeed, Eddy’s financial reports show no donations from political parties.
“I am not accepting any invitations to speak at political party events, despite invitations from both major parties. I’m not attending [political party] events, and I’m not accepting one dime of political party money,” Eddy said.
Wilson has received several donations from Republican Party county central committees. This is the first election in which Montana judicial candidates have been allowed to accept donations from political parties.
“As a judge, I can tell you I’ve never known, sitting in a courtroom, when a litigant comes before me, whether they’re Republican, Democrat, independent, Green or whatever, but a judge always knows who the lawyers are,” Wilson said.
The Gallatin County Bar Association sponsored the forum. Eddy and Wilson focused mostly on impartiality as an essential judicial practice and tried to dispel any notion that justices legislate from the bench. Both affirmed support for the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution.
On impartiality and avoiding legislating from the bench:
Eddy: “The decisions that we make, you can either hear us make them live in the courtroom, or you can read our written decisions. You can see our rationale. You can read them and know that regardless of who won or lost, the decision was rooted in the law and was not the result of any particular bias or prejudice. If one of our decisions is appealed to the Montana Supreme Court, you can read the briefs and see what people say about us, and then the Montana Supreme Court’s rulings on whether or not we were correct.”
Wilson: “Judges come from all sorts of backgrounds and beliefs, and the important thing when a judge views precedent is to ensure, so far as humanly possible, that the judge not only understands the rule, but the reasons for it, and keeps in mind that the law or the precedent doesn’t stretch any farther than its original intent.”
On interpreting the Constitution and following historical cases and legal precedents when ruling on similar matters:
Eddy: “For me, first I start, of course, with the text of the Constitution. What does it say? What is the structure of the Constitution? … And then you look to the history of the Constitution as well, and how it was ratified.”
“Stare decisis is foundational to the law and legal analysis. It provides stability and consistency in the law, which all of us rely on, both for the way we conduct ourselves as we move through the days — whether you abide by the speed limit or pay your employees, whether you have economic prosperity, whether you think you know at least how you’re able to express your liberty. All of that is built on consistency in the law.”
“The exception would be that there are some cases over the course of time that the highest court — the Montana Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court — has determined were wrongly decided and that, in hindsight, the result should be different.”
Wilson: “In my view, as the people in their Constitution have indicated, it is theirs. It’s their Constitution. All political power in Montana derives from the people, and they knew what they were trying to do when they drafted it. They had a great number of debates, and arguments, and every word of that record is available to all of us online.”
“Stare decisis, of course, does not mean that cases in which the facts are not similar are bound by the earlier decision. And I think it’s fair to say, unless the ruling in a case is very narrow and instead is very broad, that case and its holding are going to be challenged on an almost continuous basis. The argument is that the facts in this case are not so similar that this precedent should apply. The truth is that, in my view, case precedent is either cement or it’s sand, and over time, lawyers and arguments attack it, and it’s either going to withstand the test of time, or it’s eventually going to erode away and be overturned.”
— Tom Lutey
Changing of the Guard
It took 12 months, but a grassroots effort to install new leadership of the Flathead County Republican Central Committee was finalized Sept. 17 with the election of new leadership and assurances that more will be done to support conservative candidates.
Giuseppe “GMan” Caltabiano was elected to succeed Al Olszewski as Central Committee chair. Of the county’s 86 precinct committee members, 70 participated in the leadership elections. Most of those precinct positions were vacant before the June primary, when more than 60 new members, including Caltabiano, were elected.
The catalyst for local Republicans’ involvement in organizational politics was the 2025 Kalispell mayoral race, a nonpartisan contest in which members of the Flathead Republicans’ vetting committee had signaled support for Libertarian Sid Daoud over Republican Kisa Davison.
The nuance of nonpartisan races in Montana is that candidates cannot declare a party affiliation or signal to voters that they belong to a party. Political parties, however, have a First Amendment right to endorse whomever they want, and to publicize that endorsement independently of a candidate’s campaign.
Neither Daoud nor Davison was elected mayor. The contest went to Ryan Hunter, a progressive who now faces a recall petition circulated by a political action committee.
Caltabiano, who also had to defeat state Republican Party Chair Art Wittich for a precinct committee position in the June primary, told Capitolized on Thursday that Flathead Republicans will recruit and support candidates at all levels.
— Tom Lutey
