Schweitzer would not BE governor if Judy Martz hadn't been so loyal to her staffer Shane Hedges. Shane -- basically a young Karl Rove type operative, got slammed up at Marysville and rolled his truck, killing Paul Sliter, who was a number one goodfellah and Speaker at the time.
Judy was really hurt there, she just didn't have the shameless gene to throw Hedges under the bus. So then Bob Brown, a 26 year "moderate" Republican (actually, a pro-life liberal) ran for governor against BS in 2004. Got his butt kicked, nice guy against first rate knife-fighter showboat who hired national spin doctors (try David Sirota) for his campaign.
Frankly, Brown is a lot like Charlie Crist, no real core values. He's moved on to the Center for the Rocky Mtn West alongside Pat Williams, and that job and paycheck has pushed him even further to the left.
But it all goes back to one person and his drunken foolishness, which cost Montana a fine, pragmatic Republican mind in Paul Sliter. And in the end, gave Sheister his second chance.
I think Hedges is in Delaware or someplace now -- hope he stays there.
At the risk of getting too deep into Montana-shop-talk, I think the Hedges incident just weakened Martz. Yes, she wouldn't throw Hedges under the bus but the real problem came when they started attacking her for a supposed sweetheart land deal. Judy felt it was below her to respond. And before you know it, they had the public so against her, it wasn't worth her time to fight it. Damn shame. Judy and Harry are really good folks. Still torques me off when I think of all what happened.
