Gov. Judy Martz (R) Elected 2000, 1st term up Jan. 2005
Born:	July 28, 1948, Big Timber
Home:	Helena
Education:	E. MT Col.
Religion:	Christian
Marital Status:	married (Harry)
Elected  Office:	MT Lt. Gov., 1996-00.
Professional Career:	Field Ofc. Rep., Sen. Conrad Burns, 1989-95; Owner, Martz Disposal, 1965-present.
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Judy Martz, elected governor in 2000, was born in Big Timber, on the plains beneath the Absaroka Range, and has 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 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 chose her. Racicot's job approval was around 75%, and 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 she wanted to make Montana "open for business" and 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.

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. Martz won 57%-43%. Three term-limited statewide officials ran in the Democratic primary. 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 argued that the key to economic growth was education and 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." He said he would retain the 3% business property tax and use the money for property tax relief for homeowners. Martz claimed his policies would require $183 million in new spending and higher taxes.

Polls showed an even race for much of the year. O'Keefe spent $2.2 million of his own money; a group called People for Montana, financed by 10 large corporations, ran ads attacking O'Keefe's policies as harmful to Montana's economy. 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. 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 had a rocky first two years as governor. Tragedy struck in August 2001 when state House Majority Leader Paul Sliter, 32, was killed in the crash of a car driven by Martz's chief policy adviser, Shane Hedges, 27. Hedges denied to officers that he had been driving, and Martz took him from the hospital at 4 a.m. and washed his bloodstained clothes, which the police later sought as evidence; when this was made public in January 2002, she admitted she had acted wrongly. Hedges, who was intoxicated, was charged with felony negligent homicide; he resigned in August and was sentenced in October to six months at a pre-release center and a 6-year suspended sentence.

In November 2001, it was revealed that Martz and her husband in September 1999 purchased an 80-acre parcel of land next to their home from Arco for $300 an acre. As governor, Martz is the trustee for the state in litigation against Arco ongoing since the 1980s over the Clark Fork Superfund site near Butte. The Martzes had paid $833 an acre for a nearby parcel; Democrats in spring 2002 charged that Arco made a gift to Martz in violation of the state's ethics law. A two-day hearing was held in June 2002 and in September 2002 the state Political Practices Commissioner ruled that Arco had made no gift (the Martzes argued the Arco land was worth less than the other parcel) and that Martz did not violate the law. Despite the vindication, she had to endure months of unfavorable publicity--to the point where she announced she would not give interviews to some reporters.

On taxes and spending, Martz kept her promises during 2001 and 2002, but with difficulty. She prevented tax increases and kept asserting that she wanted to cut state income taxes by 10%. But as revenue estimates plummeted, she called a special session of the legislature in August 2002, which voted spending cuts of $21 million and $35 million in fund transfers and accounting changes. In November 2002, projections were that revenues would still be short $32 million in June 2003; Martz recommended $12 million in further cuts. Democrats projected a $250 million deficit for the next biennial budget; Martz proposed tapping $93 million in principal in the coal severance tax trust fund. On environmental issues, Martz has said that extractive industry officials are "true environmentalists" and that protesters who tie themselves to logging trucks should "get a job." In September 2002, she hailed Bush administration measures allowing more logging in national forests and she criticized the National Park Service for not doing its part under a 2000 agreement, reached after 10 years of controversy, in rounding up bison roving outside Yellowstone National Park; the Park Service and protesters who monitor the treatment of bison denied her charges.

Martz's job rating declined sharply during her first two years in office. In late 2001, it hovered around 40%-- weak, but not dismal. But in October and November 2002, polls showed her with 23% and 20% positive job approval, the lowest of any of the 50 governors. Republicans lost seats in the 2002 legislative elections, but still had majorities in both houses. At the same time voters rejected by 68%-32% an initiative, supported by Democrats and opposed by Martz, which would have authorized the state to buy power dams owned by Montana Power until electricity deregulation was passed in 1997.

In late 2002, Martz said she would decide whether to run again in 2004 after the legislative session. Longtime Billings legislator Thomas Keating, 74, Natelson's running mate in 2000, said he would run on a platform of getting "back to our natural resource industry base." Another possible Republican candidate was Secretary of State Bob Brown. A host of Democrats were seen as possible candidates: rancher Brian Schweitzer, who lost by only 51%-47% to Senator Conrad Burns in 2000; O'Keefe and Mazurek, who ran first and second in the 2000 gubernatorial primary; and Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy. Montana voters have not ousted an incumbent governor in a general election since 1968; it could happen again in 2004.

Update: February 4, 2004
On August 13, 2003, Martz announced she would not run for reelection in 2004.

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

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
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%