Which party controlled Montana politics, year by year?
A couple of years back, longtime Montana reporter Chuck Johnson shared with MTFP a spreadsheet he’d compiled detailing which political party had controlled the Montana House, Senate and governorship year-by-year over the course of the state’s history. Chuck being Chuck, it included figures stretching back nearly to statehood in 1889, painstakingly tallied and color-coded.
Latest Politics Reporting
Tester announces 2024 reelection bid
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, the only Democrat holding statewide elected office in Montana, said Wednesday that he’ll seek reelection to a fourth term in 2024.
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Lawmakers link up over bipartisan sausage
The sight as a group of Montana lawmakers gathered at an event venue outside Clancy Saturday morning, a week into the 2023 session of the Montana Legislature, wasn’t necessarily pretty.
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Lawmakers deadlock on political practices commissioner
A panel of four lawmakers failed to reach consensus last week on which of five applicants for commissioner of political practices to forward to Gov. Greg Gianforte. Now, all five automatically advance.
Committee probing judiciary adopts amended final report
The Republican-led select committee formed late last session to probe the state’s judiciary voted to adopt an amended version of its final report to the Legislature. The 4-2 party-line vote came after the chair of the Select Committee on Judicial Accountability and Transparency, Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, eliminated language in the report accusing Montana Supreme…
HD 80 hopeful questions whether reservation votes should count
A legislative aide with aspirations of representing House District 80 in the 2023 Legislature questioned in public remarks Tuesday whether members of tribes living on reservations in Montana should be able to vote in state elections. “If the reservations want to say they are independent countries … but they want a lot of handouts, why…
Districting and Apportionment Commission approves Senate pairings and amends House map
After almost 13 hours of negotiation and debate about now-familiar subjects like competitiveness, proportionality and compactness, the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission has adopted a new map of state Senate districts and set the parameters of the next decade of state legislative elections.
Judge denies Gianforte’s ‘executive privilege’ defense in record request lawsuit
A Helena judge has ordered Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte to release government records that spurred a prominent right to know lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought by Helena resident and Democratic political consultant Jayson O’Neill, who filed a request in May 2021 for agency bill monitoring forms, which contain communications between the governor’s office and state…
Redistricting commission advances new legislative map
The Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission on has advanced a tentative new configuration of the state’s 100 House districts for consideration by the public. Presiding commissioner Maylinn Smith broke a tie in favor of the body’s two Democrats following a week of intense — and often private — negotiations.
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MORE POLITICAL REPORTING
The Session Preview: “Everybody smile, we’re running the place”
With the 2022 election over, Republicans hold power not seen in the state capitol in nearly a century. The governor has released his budget. Lawmakers have elected leadership and will arrive in Helena on Jan. 2 to begin their work.
Republicans select Regier, Ellsworth as House Speaker and Senate President
House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday selected Rep. Matt Regier of Kalispell and Sen. Jason Ellsworth of Hamilton as the leaders of their respective caucuses, cueing up a 2023 legislative session in which the GOP will enjoy the first two-thirds supermajority since Montana drafted its modern Constitution in 1972.
Republican operative publicizes ethics complaints against Supreme Court incumbent
A prominent Republican operative backing Montana Supreme Court candidate James Brown has filed two ethics complaints against Brown’s opponent in the race, incumbent Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson, with less than a month until Election Day.
Will Montana’s congressional candidates accept their election results?
Montana Free Press reached out to every candidate running for the state’s two U.S. House districts to ask whether they will accept the results of their elections, and under what circumstances they would contest.
GOP House candidate paid vendors with bad checks and misreported debts
The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices found that a Republican candidate for House District 82 in Helena tried to pay vendors with bad checks and misreported accrued debts as expenditures, referring the matter to the Lewis and Clark County attorney for possible prosecution.
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