Has hands full facing GOP Legislature in red state
One-term Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock, who was raised in Helena, often recalled on the campaign trail how he used to ride by the state Capitol on his paper route.
Now, Bullock has found his way to the corner office on the second floor of the venerable building, having defeated former Republican congressman Rick Hill to take the Montana governorship.
Bullock, 46, made a name for himself nationally by taking on the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United campaign-finance decision by defending Montana’s century-old Corrupt Practices Act, which banned corporate expenditures on political campaigns in the state. Bullock triumphed in theMontana Supreme Court, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the state law by a 5-4 decision. Bullock is popular with the state’s significant percentage of sportsmen, having written the state’s opinion guaranteeing access to rivers, streams and public lands. Bullock worked with the Legislature and popular Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer to put the access opinion into state law.
Bullock will have his hands full in a conservative state with a Republicandominated Legislature. In 2011, Schweitzer vetoed a record 78 GOPbacked bills, which he famously referred to as “bat-crap crazy.” Bullock has already said he won’t be afraid to use the veto pen if Republicans, who maintain majorities in both houses, send bills to his desk aimed at making Montana a right-to-work state, restricting access to abortions or nullifying federal laws.