5 days ago
Committee starting work on ballot initiative for nonpartisan judicial elections
The door to the old Supreme Court Chamber at the Montana Capitol. (Micah Drew/Daily Montanan)
A newly formed political committee is beginning a campaign to enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections in the state constitution, after a multitude of efforts by the Montana Legislature to attach party labels to judges failed.
Pepper Peterson, the political director for Montanans for Fair and Impartial Judges, said the goal of putting a constitutional initiative to voters in 2026 came after watching the repeated rebuffing of those actions during the session.
'I think the people of Montana can see the system here is fair,' Peterson told the Daily Montanan. 'This is a common sense idea to have in our state constitution. Anything else is just raw partisanship, and I don't think most Montanans are on that train.'
Throughout the 2025 session, legislators introduced more than a half-dozen bills aimed at allowing, or requiring, judicial candidates to declare a party label, a stated goal of Republican leaders in the Legislature and Gov. Greg Gianforte, who argue that the judicial branch is 'nonpartisan in name only.'
One bill passed — House Bill 39, which allows political parties to donate to judicial candidates — but a majority failed to gain traction in at least one chamber.
Five separate bills attempted to allow, or require, judges to run under a partisan label. Some bills would have only applied to the Montana Supreme Court, others would have included any judicial candidate, including district and municipal judges, and justices of the peace.
Lawmakers who supported those measures said that allowing candidates to align with a political party would bring transparency to the process and help educate voters.
While a majority of lawmakers didn't seem to have an appetite for changing the system, it was a point of discussion all the way until the final day, with Gianforte's office considering adding the partisan judicial issue into an amendment of a spending bill.
Despite the thwarted attempts to alter the judicial selection process, Republican leaders in the Senate said they had laid a foundation for future reform.
'I think that judicial reform is critical, continuously. It's important for our judges to have accountability. It's important for preventative transparency, and what we did this session helps start that process,' said Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, during a press conference at the end of the session.
But Peterson said seeing lawmakers pushing partisan judicial elections get 'slapped down over and over and over again' set the stage for bringing the issue to the ballot box.
'That's what we anticipate the people to do as well. We're going to put this in the Constitution, and we're going to stop this,' he said. 'The people are going to have to send this message very loud and very clear so that lawmakers know this is what Montanans want.'
Peterson is working with Ted Dick, a former executive director of the Montana Democratic Party more than a decade ago, on the ballot issue — the same team behind the successful ballot initiatives in 2020 designed to legalize adult use of recreational marijuana.
Peterson said their experience on that campaign, as well as his decades of political work in the state on issues from coal mining to gun rights, make them the right group to bring forward the ballot initiative, despite not working on judicial issues during the session.
'My career has been nonpartisan activism for the rights of citizens. I consider myself a civil rights activist over anything, whether that's the rights of the 2nd amendment, 1st amendment, 4th amendment,' Peterson said. 'I can get signatures and get this issue across the finish line … It's a complicated process, there's only a few people who are experts, and we're some of them.'
To get the issue onto the ballot as a constitutional initiative in 2026, the committee must collect valid signatures representing 10% of votes cast for governor in the last election stateside, as well as 10% in at least 40 legislative districts.
If the issue makes it onto the ballot, a simple majority of votes will enshrine it as a part of the state constitution.
Two new laws passed by the Legislature make changes to the process for gathering signatures for ballot initiatives.
Senate Bill 226, sponsored by Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, requires signatures be submitted incrementally, rather than by a single deadline.
House Bill 201, by Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, mandates that a paid signature gatherer must verbally disclose their first name, state where they legally reside, and position as a paid gatherer to anyone they approach. They must also wear a nametag with that information.
Peterson said the committee intends to have 'thousands of conversations' during the early stages of building out their campaign with lobbyists, special interest groups, and most importantly, citizens.
'Polling done on this issue shows overwhelming support from Montanans for nonpartisan elections,' Peterson said. 'I don't think it's our uphill battle to fight at all — I think it's an uphill battle for the other side to convince people the system we have in place is flawed.'
