Montana governor's election comments draw fire
Matt GourasWhen word surfaced this week that Gov. Brian Schweitzer suggested in a speech this summer that he influenced Montana's 2006 U.S. Senate race to help a fellow Democrat, Schweitzer apologized and said he was joking.
Republicans were not amused. On Thursday, GOP Secretary of State Brad Johnson asked Attorney General Mike McGrath to investigate a citizen complaint over Schweitzer's election-tampering comments.
McGrath, a Democrat, issued a quick refusal, saying "the accusations contain no allegation supported by fact." He then appeared to admonish Johnson for seeking the investigation. "The misuse of the criminal justice system for political purposes is a serious matter," McGrath wrote in his response.
The secretary of state's office argued it does not have the authority to launch criminal investigations so all such complaints are forwarded to the attorney general. "It's very sad that the attorney general had to treat this in a partisan way," said Johnson spokesman Bowen Greenwood.
The chairman of the Montana Republican Party had an even sharper response, saying McGrath refused the investigation "without so much as even lifting a finger in an effort to ascertain the facts."
"This is the sort of good-old-boy cronyism and politics as usual that folks all across Montana and America are rightly fed up with," GOP Chairman Erik Iverson said.
The U.S. attorney's office said it is reviewing Schweitzer's comments to see if a federal investigation is warranted.
Schweitzer himself said he was only playing off well-known Montana election themes when he brought up the 2006 U.S. Senate race in his July speech to the American Association for Justice.
Speaking to the national trial lawyers group at its convention in Philadelphia, Schweitzer claimed he used his position as governor to "turn some dials" in that election.
The comments, which surfaced this week as an audio recording on the Internet, centered on the race between Democrat Jon Tester and Republican incumbent Conrad Burns. Tester's narrow victory helped Democrats gain control of the Senate.
Schweitzer told the crowd that he called the Butte-Silver Bow County election office and told the clerk, whom he called "nervous as a pregnant nun," that she should not release the results until he called.
"And I said, `I want you to listen, I want you to listen close: I'll call you when you're done counting. Now do you understand it?'" Schweitzer told the crowd, according to the recording. "And she's from Butte, she understood exactly."
Mary McMahon, head of the election office for Butte-Silver Bow County, said Wednesday the governor's story was fiction.
She said Schweitzer did call her office around 3:30 a.m., but she did not accept the call. She told an assistant to tell the governor he would get a call when all the votes were counted.
"He had absolutely no influence on me or my office on the outcome as to when numbers would be released," McMahon said.
She also called the "pregnant nun" reference offensive and said she wanted an apology.
In the speech, Schweitzer also claimed he had warned tribal officials that Republicans may try to intimidate voters on American Indian reservations.
On Wednesday, Schweitzer said he was simply telling stories for the benefit of the crowd. He said he had no idea if Republican operatives were on the reservations.
"For anybody I have offended in this, including anyone in the Republican Party, I am sorry," the governor said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "I have learned my lesson. I am not joking about this again."
Republicans said Schweitzer's comments, even if just jokes, showed poor judgment.
"Far from being humorous, Gov. Brian Schweitzer's comments were inappropriate and breathtakingly foolish," said Iverson, the GOP chairman. "The governor brags all the time about what a great ambassador he is for Montana. But in this instance he comes off as an arrogant, vulgar blowhard."
A spokesman for Tester dismissed the governor's comments.
"This is just Brian being Brian, and there's nothing to it. Jon won the election fair and square," spokesman Patrick Devlin said.