By MIKE DENNISON Missoulian State Bureau | Posted: Monday, September 6, 2010 6:00 am
HELENA - The contest to fill an open seat on Montana's Supreme Court may be the most competitive statewide race on the ballot this fall - but don't expect a knock-down, drag-out affair, the candidates say.
Beth Baker, a longtime Helena attorney and former deputy attorney general, and Nels Swandal, a state district judge from Wilsall, say they plan to campaign on their respective reputations, each telling voters why his or her experience and temperament is best for the court.
"I don't expect a real intense campaign," says Swandal. "I'm just trying to get out there ... and talk about my experience, my roots in Montana and what I bring to the court."
Yet the campaign is not without a political edge, as Swandal frames himself as a conservative who will protect property and individual rights, while Baker says her strictly nonpartisan stance is what people want on the state's highest court.
"The judiciary's function is to protect your legal rights," she says. "That is not dependent on a judge's personal views or political ideology."
Swandal's campaign has been endorsed by several business and ag groups, including the Montana Chamber of Commerce, while Baker has been endorsed by labor and conservation groups - and the Chamber of Commerce, which had a dual endorsement.
The Baker-Swandal race also may get more attention this year than the usual Supreme Court contest, as few other statewide offices are even up for election.
Swandal, 57, and Baker, 48, are running for the seat of retiring Justice William Leaphart, who's stepping down after 16 years on the court.
No matter who wins the eight-year term, it won't immediately change the political makeup of the seven-member court. Leaphart is considered part of a liberal-to-moderate majority that controls the court, which has only one justice, Jim Rice, viewed as solidly in the conservative camp.
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Nonetheless, conservatives have rallied behind Swandal. Many prominent Republicans have donated to his campaign and his campaign advisers and managers are former staffers for U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont.
Swandal says being a conservative means he's a strong supporter of individual, privacy and property rights, and that Montana's constitution staunchly protects all three.
"I believe in limited government," he says. "That's what a constitution is there to protect."
Yet he also says his conservative views won't dictate his opinions, one way or the other.
"I treat everybody fairly and impartially," Swandal says. "Look at my record. (I rule based) on the law and the facts. You don't cite anything on your personal opinions or preferences."
Swandal has been the district judge serving Park and Sweet Grass counties since 1995 and was Park County attorney for 12 years before that. He comes from a family of lawyers and farmer-ranchers and lives on the family ranch near Wilsall, north of Livingston.
Swandal notes that no one on the current Supreme Court served previously as a district judge and says that perspective is needed. A former judge can explain why certain things happened at the trial court level, he says, perhaps preventing needless reversals by the Supreme Court.
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Baker, who grew up in Spokane, Wash., has been a lawyer in Helena since 1985. Her family often vacationed in western Montana and she got her law degree from the University of Montana.
After clerking for U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell, she joined the state Justice Department, working under attorneys general Marc Racicot, a Republican, and Joe Mazurek, a Democrat. She was chief deputy attorney general when she left state government in 2000 to take a job with a Helena law firm, where she works now.
She has specialized in defending individuals, government employees and businesses in civil cases and has done volunteer work representing those who can't afford lawyers, including domestic violence victims.
Baker says she's not advertising her political views because she has no political agenda and doesn't think they should influence what one does as a judge.
"There is plenty of opportunity for individuals to bring their personal policy ideas, and what they think is best for public policy, in the other two branches of government," she says. "But it doesn't have any place on the court."
Baker points to the support she is getting from many former state legislators, both Democrat and Republican, who worked with her while she was in the state Justice Department.
"Those people know my strength of character, know my integrity and know that my overriding interest is in the faithful application of the law, fairly and impartially," she says. "That says more about who I am and who I will be as a justice than any kind of personal (political) philosophy."
While Baker has no experience as a judge, she says she's tried dozens of cases before the Supreme Court and knows its role in the judiciary: "It doesn't exist to project the district judge; it exists to protect the rights of the parties."
Missoulian State Bureau reporter Mike Dennison can be reached at 1-800-525-4920, or at mike.dennison@lee.net.
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