This story is produced by Montana Free Press/Mountain Journal in collaboration with Grist as part of the Report for America Local News Initiative.
Republicans Annie Bukacek and Jeff Pattison have been elected to the Montana Public Service Commission. They will join the three other commissioners on the PSC to regulate utilities, including the state’s largest monopoly, NorthWestern Energy. The Associated Press called the races at 11:04 a.m. MST on Nov. 5, approximately two days after polls closed on Nov. 3, due to technical difficulties the AP experienced.
The percentage of votes counted in each race had lingered below 60% all of Wednesday and into early Thursday morning.
“There is an issue in our backend, and we are in the process of correcting,” Eva Parziale, manager of AP’s customer engagement, wrote in an email to MTFP on Thursday just before 10 a.m.
It was not immediately clear what caused the delayed announcement. By the time both races were called, the AP recorded 93% of votes counted in District 1 and 98% of votes counted in District 5.
Bukacek is the incumbent in her race, having defeated Democrat Kevin Hamm with 52.8% of the vote. Bukacek will represent the PSC’s District 5, which covers portions of the Flathead Valley, east to the edge of Great Falls and south to Helena. This will be her second four-year term on the commission, having first taken office in January of 2023.
Republican Jeff Pattison will represent District 1, which covers most of eastern Montana, extending westward to Billings and Great Falls. Pattison beat Democratic candidate Angeline Cheek. Pattison won with 65.4%% of the vote.
The election of Bukacek and Pattison means the commission will remain fully Republican, as it has been since 2012. This race could be the commission’s last, with legislation already drafted ahead of the 2027 session to allow the governor to appoint commissioners. It’s a move supported by Gov. Gianforte’s Unleashing Energy Task Force, and was named as a priority in the group’s report last summer.
In the era of artificial intelligence data centers, the PSC could play an important role in regulating the amount customers pay for energy, as well as how data centers generate power or build out infrastructure. NorthWestern has already signed several agreements to power data centers. At a time of rising costs, affordability is a top-of-mind concern for Montana voters this election according to a MTFP-Eagleton poll. Polling found 80% of registered voters pointed to cost-of-living and affordability concerns as “very important” in helping them decide who to vote for on their ballots.
Another potential avenue of regulation for the PSC is climate change. A coalition of businesses and environmental groups have petitioned the commission to include climate impacts as part of its decision-making process for the better part of two years. After several years without obtaining a response to the petition, the groups requesting the change sued the PSC last month for failing to act.
The commission is also preparing to vote on a proposed merger between monopoly utility NorthWestern Energy and the Black Hills Corporation next week.
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