On December 17, a lower Montana state court ruled that Rick Jore is the new Montana State Representative from the 12th district. Rick Jore is the Constitution Party nominee, and he becomes the first state legislator in the nation to be elected under the Constitution Party label.
The court ruled that the election results, as tabulated in the recount, are correct. The recount showed that Jore and his Democratic opponent tied. Under Montana law, a tie vote for state legislature gives the Governor the right to appoint, and Montana’s outgoing Republican Governor had appointed Jore to the seat a few days earlier, since the recount had shown a tie. Jore’s Democratic opponent filed a lawsuit to overturn the results of the recount, but her lawsuit did not succeed.
Considering it is such a close race, I don’t think we’ll ever know who *really* won that election. I’m happy to see it move forward. I’m also happy to see a 3rd Party candidate get elected.
Wow! What a shocker! It is great news for advocates of third parties but TOTALLY unexpected by me at least. I would never have thought the system would have allowed this. Perhaps there is hope after all.
And he’ll pretty much have that seat forever, cause the Republicans probably won’t run against him, giving him a simple majority in the future.
RJ, unfortunately, he will have to give up his seat in 2006. This is because he had 3 previous terms as a Republican (1994 – 2000). Montana term limits restrict politicians to 8 years within a 16 year period.
That means he won’t be allowed to run again until 2010. But that’s okay, because he will probably win then; surely the Republicans won’t make the same mistake again of running a candidate against him.
It is also likely that the CP will pick up additional seats, now that the party has received so much publicity in the State. The party is also growing rapidly in Utah and Nevada.