Storm Clouds Follow Governor in Big Sky Country

At a convention of home-schooling parents earlier this month, Gov. Judy Martz praised families who were able to teach their children outside the public school system for as little as $300 a year. “It shouldn’t take $5,000 to $7,000 to educate a student in public schools, and it surely doesn’t take a village to raise one,” she said.

In a state that is closing rural schools and fighting to maintain education dollars, the governor’s implication that the public system spends too much money lighted a fuse of resentment--even here in Glasgow, a farm town on the eastern prairies where a Republican governor normally is treated like family. School Supt. Glen Monson rose during the Kiwanis Club luncheon to point out that the town already had had to close a school and retire its three most experienced teachers because it couldn’t afford them.

Martz, a former Miss Rodeo Montana and Olympic speedskater who spent years running a garbage collection business before jumping into politics, likely will assume her first national role this week when she takes over chairmanship of the Western Governors Assn. Her expected election at the meeting of 21 state leaders in Phoenix comes at a time of controversy over her own governorship, sparked by a series of political mishaps that have sent her approval ratings as low as 37%.

Democrats believe her problems could give them their first shot at the Montana governorship in years, and could even tip the balance in the state Legislature this year. Republicans, who convened their annual state convention this weekend, say the numbers are in their favor; but already they privately are evaluating the chances of convincing Martz to avert trouble by not running again in 2004.

Montana’s first female governor is highly popular in the business community for her commitment to creating higher-wage jobs. Her strong professions of faith and advocacy of teaching religious values to children also have earned Martz applause from many conservative Montanans.

But major newspapers in the last few months have begun ridiculing Martz, with the Missoulian implying in a tongue-in-cheek editorial that she is “the kind of governor most of you would be if you woke up one November morning and discovered you’d been elected.”

Front pages all over Montana last week devoted substantial space to a state ethics hearing into Martz’s purchase of land near her home from Atlantic Richfield Co., which is involved in a multimillion-dollar Superfund cleanup lawsuit with the state.

This year, Martz’s former director of communications, Mary Jo Fox, wrote a column expressing a degree of relief that she had been fired. “Should one thrown off the Titanic be resentful or grateful?” wrote Fox, asserting that “Gov. Judy Martz has a cheerful way of redefining denial and inaction as leadership.”

Republican leaders say Martz speaks forthrightly about issues that Montanans care deeply about but is penalized for her frankness. “People always say they want a politician to speak her mind. She does that. The fact is she’s an honest woman, and she’s going to get in trouble for speaking her mind,” said Mike Kiedrowski, executive director of the state Republican Party.

Indeed, Martz’s personal charm is considerable; even her opponents give her high marks for her energy, hard work and commitment to building a stronger economic base in a state that ranks 46th in personal income.

But the home-schooling speech drew ire--especially because it had religious overtones and seemed to imply that children should be taught Christian values.

Those at the meeting said the governor launched into an ardent, almost tearful, affirmation of her faith and asserted that children tutored at home learn “the most important lessons ... the reasons why” they should abstain from drugs and sex. “We have a right to talk about Jesus Christ as our personal savior, and tell our children about him too,” she declared.

“She was effectively implying that public schools aren’t religious. Well, maybe they aren’t, and maybe they shouldn’t be, because our Constitution says we accept all faiths in this country,” said Eric Feaver, head of the Montana Education Assn. Feaver and other liberal advocates say they have been marginalized by the administration.

“It’s very difficult to talk about public schools with this governor, because she keeps saying our economy’s bad and we can’t pay teachers better and the only way to make our economy better is to cut income taxes and maybe I don’t want to talk to you anyway because you’re not as Christian as I’d like you to be,” Feaver added.

“The result is that I last met with the governor in an official capacity in January of 2001.... Never in my history as a lobbyist have I been so isolated. And I don’t think I’m alone. It’s just that those of us who are on a course that’s different from the governor’s are simply not on the governor’s radar screen. We’re an annoyance.”

Yet in other quarters of the state, the home-schooling remarks were celebrated. Some of those who were there that night wept during her remarks. Others looked at it practically. “Since when is telling the truth looked at as harmful and divisive? Our public school system is failing at every level and has been going downhill for many years,” said Gary Barnett, a Missoula resident.

Martz, 53, stepped full time into politics in 1990, taking a job as field representative for Republican Sen. Conrad R. Burns. In 1995, when popular GOP Gov. Mark Racicot needed a new running mate, she called him and asked for the job. She ran for the governorship herself against former state Auditor Mark O’Keefe in 2000, winning 51% of the vote despite the $2.2 million of his own money O’Keefe poured into the election.

Her troubles as governor started even before she took office, with a December 2000 meeting of the Montana Taxpayers Assn., when she announced she was happy to say she was “a lapdog of industry.” (Martz says she doesn’t recall making the statement, but state newspapers reported it, and it was confirmed to The Times by at least one witness.)

She later drew criticism from women’s groups and others when she jokingly remarked that her husband never beat her, adding: “But then, I never gave him a reason to.”

Another controversy erupted in August 2001 when Martz’s chief of staff, Shane Hedges, was involved in a car accident that killed the state House majority leader. Authorities said Hedges, who was driving, was legally drunk. But when authorities went to the governor’s mansion to examine as evidence the clothes Hedges was wearing that night, Martz admitted she had washed them after taking Hedges home with her.

“If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have, but the mother in me did it,” Martz told reporters.

The state Justice Department also is investigating the reported use of staff time and state telephones to organize a fund-raiser in Palm Springs for the Montana Majority Fund--a GOP-linked, tax-exempt political fund. Martz served as honorary chairwoman for the campaign, which raised tens of thousands of dollars from business sources inside and outside Montana. State law prohibits corporate contributions to candidates or parties.

Martz--who was unavailable for an interview--has tended to blame a scandal-happy press for most of the controversy surrounding her, saying that most Montanans are “sick” of reading about it.

As chairwoman of the Western Governors Assn., she says she will seek to bring new emphasis to work force development and education, tourism and economic development in the West. “Tourism, trade and homeland security all rely on a strong, integrated underlying physical infrastructure, including secure and efficient communications and transportation systems,” she said in a statement prepared for the conference.

In Montana, Martz is preparing to implement $30.9 million in budget reductions that will slash into nearly every department to help fill a projected deficit. Because they make up so large a part of the budget, state health and social services will take the biggest hit--up to 41% of the cuts--with highly controversial reductions in Medicaid, domestic violence prevention, foster care and children’s health insurance. The Legislature has signed off on the cuts in principle, but several members are calling for a special session to look at the matter in detail.

As Martz sees it, the way out is economic growth. She is looking ahead to tax proposals designed to kick-start the economy, which has escaped most of the worst of the recession (unemployment is only 4.5%) but is badly in need of high-paying jobs.

In Glasgow, a town of 3,250 about 275 miles northeast of Great Falls, she powered her way up and down the business district, commiserating with shop owners on the difficulties of running a business, admiring some hand-made beadwork (“I could make that!” she declared) and touring the phone company, which has brought cellular phone service and high-speed Internet access all over the sparsely populated region.

Back at the Kiwanis Club, a work shirt-and-jeans affair, Martz told community leaders a 10% income tax reduction would put $66 million a year back into taxpayers’ hands, money that would allow people to keep their communities growing and vital. Local option and tourist taxes could help generate new revenue for government, she said. But some of the men and women present seemed skeptical, especially of the so-called tourist tax.

“That’s basically a sales tax,” said one man in the front of the room.

“Yes, that’s basically a sales tax,” Martz replied evenly.

“That’s a tax on everybody in this room,” he said.

“That’s a tax on everybody in this room. And if you want to stay 46th in per capita income, we won’t talk about a sales tax. I have people when I go home who say to me, ‘Oh, I’m so proud we don’t have a sales tax!’ Well, we’re going to die proud and broke.”

The audience looked around and didn’t seem to have much to say in reply as they pushed the Jell-O salad around on their plates. Even Tom Stathos, the pharmacist who a minute earlier had taken the government to task for the proposed Medicaid cuts, was of two minds about the governor.

The Medicaid cuts will likely force Stathos to sell 40% or more of his drugs at cost. But it’s not as if anyone else knows what to do, Stathos said.

“Like she said, she inherited a lot of problems,” he said. “She’s got a very difficult job.”