Elected 2000, term expires Jan. 2005 Born: July 28, 1948, Big Timber Home: Helena Education: E. MT Col. Religion: Christian Marital Status: married (Harry)

Career:

• Political: MT Lt. Gov., 1996-2000.
• Professional: Field Ofc. Rep., Sen. Conrad Burns, 1989-95; Owner, Martz Disposal, 1965-present.

Office: Office of the Governor, State Capitol, Helena 59620, 406-444-3111; Fax: 406-444-4151; Web: www.state.mt.us.

Judy Martz, elected governor in 2000, was born in Big Timber, on the plains beneath the Absaroka Range, and spent most her life in Butte. An amateur athlete, she was crowned Miss Rodeo Montana at 20 and represented the U.S. as a speed skater in the 1964 Winter Olympics. She worked for Republican candidates in the 1960s and in the 1970s became more involved in politics after her husband set up a garbage disposal company in Butte. In 1990 she became a field representative for Senator Conrad Burns. She served on a Butte hospital board, chaired the local Chamber of Commerce, and helped build a high altitude speed skating center in Butte. She worked to clean up mining tailings and build baseball fields on the site.

Martz always wears a turtle pin on her blouse to illustrate a favorite saying: "Behold the turtle. He only goes forward when his neck's stuck out." In 1995 Lieutenant Governor Dennis Rehberg started running for the Senate (he lost in 1996, but was elected congressman-at-large in 2000), and Governor Marc Racicot (pronounced roscoe) was looking for a new running mate. Martz stuck out her neck and called him up and asked him for the job. After two extensive interviews, he made her his running mate. Racicot's job approval was around 75%, and his re-election was not in doubt. The Racicot-Martz ticket won with 79% of the vote.

As lieutenant governor, she chaired a drought advisory council and co-chaired the Montana-Alberta Boundary Advisory Commission (Montana abuts three Canadian provinces, the only state to do so). In 1999 she began running for governor. She said the state needed to be made more attractive to businesses, and supported the law to phase out the 3% business equipment tax in 2003. She emphasized a 21-point JOBS program to encourage public-private partnerships and supported Racicot's Vision 2005 program to double agricultural output. She favored five-year tax credits to high-tech companies. "I'm still a small business person. I worked the garbage route for 13 years. I took my turns at the graveyard shift."

It was a crowded field. In the primary Martz faced University of Montana law professor Rob Natelson, an anti-tax crusader who won 24% against Racicot in the 1996 primary and sponsored a 1998 ballot measure to require voter approval for new taxes and fees, which passed but was overturned by the state Supreme Court. Martz won 57%-43%; Natelson carried Great Falls, Kalispell, Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley. The Democratic primary was a contest between three term-limited statewide officials. The best known at the start was probably Attorney General Joe Mazurek. But state Auditor Mark O'Keefe organized early and spent $240,000 of his own money; he is married to Dayton-Hudson heir Lucy Dayton, whose brother Mark Dayton spent liberally of his own money and was elected to the U.S. Senate in Minnesota in 2000. O'Keefe won with 48%, to 36% for Mazurek and 16% for Secretary of State Mike Cooney.

O'Keefe served an Army paratrooper in Vietnam, came to Montana in 1977 and worked in Glacier National Park and state government. In 1983 he started a business guiding tours in and near Glacier National Park. In 1988 he was elected to the legislature; in 1992 he won the hitherto sleepy office of state auditor, and compiled a record regulating insurance companies and securities businesses. O'Keefe argued that the key to encouraging economic growth in Montana was education, and he proposed increasing state funding of public schools to 70%. He said scornfully, "I don't think she's prepared to be governor. She doesn't understand the policy implications of her proposals. She wants to further cut taxes on wealthy taxpayers and out-of-state corporations, but she doesn't realize that those cuts are going to be devastating to education, schools and kids in this state." He said he would retain the 3% business property tax and use the money for property tax relief for homeowners.

Martz attacked O'Keefe as an ambitious, big-spending liberal. "If he spends taxpayers' money the way he spends the millions of his wife, then Montana is in trouble." She claimed his economic development and education policies would require $183 million in new spending and higher taxes. She kept repeating that the Consumer Federation of America gave O'Keefe a D on insurance regulation; he blamed it on insufficient funding from Racicot and the legislature.

Polls showed an even race for much of the year. O'Keefe spent $2.2 million of his own money, and far outspent Martz. In September a group called People for Montana financed by 10 large corporations spent ads attacking O'Keefe's policies as harmful to Montana's economy. He responded, "I may indeed be their worst nightmare," and said they were supporting Martz "because she's promised to lower their biggest tax to zero--that's right, ZERO--which will put even more of our tax burden on the backs of homeowners." Racicot appeared in TV spots for Martz, and on November 1 he asked the attorney general to investigate whether O'Keefe improperly helped Montanans to invest in a venture capital fund while he also regulated securities.

The result was close, and perhaps George W. Bush's strong showing here made the difference. Martz won 51%-47%, carrying most of the state's counties. O'Keefe carried the mining towns, counties with large Indian populations, plus Missoula, Great Falls, and Helena. Martz is Montana's first woman governor (although the state elected a woman to the U.S. House as long ago as 1916) and one with not much in the way of pretention. As she said during the campaign, "I am what you see, and I will not promise you the world."

Election Results
2000 general	Judy Martz (R)	209,135	(51%)
	Mark O'Keefe (D)	193,131	(47%)
	Other	7,926	(2%)
2000 primary	Judy Martz (R)	64,278	(57%)
	Rob Natelson (R)	48,738	(43%)
1996 general	Marc Racicot (R)	320,768	(79%)
	Judy Jacobson (D)	76,471	(19%)
	Other	7,936	(2%)