When something is not working, it is time to make a change.
Our government is not working well. America is the greatest country on earth, yet we have allowed extremists to play an outsized role in our government. The result has been a lack of common sense and a failure by the government to perform its basic functions at a competent level.
The Montana Department of Justice (DOJ), which is led by Attorney General Austin Knudsen, is a prime example. During most of my career as a litigator, the DOJ has been one of the premier law firms in Montana. Attorneys General Marc Racicot, Joe Mazurek, Mike McGrath, Steve Bullock and Tim Fox all led the DOJ with integrity and credibility. They made professional, clear judgments about the law, effectively represented the state in key matters and built Montanans’ faith that they would be treated fairly by the government.
Unfortunately, Austin Knudsen has failed to live up to their example. By any measure, he has failed to serve the people of Montana effectively. The legal department has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars while losing case after case. Even conservative Republicans have publicly criticized Mr. Knudsen’s litigation strategies (or lack thereof).
The Attorney General supervises the Montana Highway Patrol, which is understaffed and suffers from low morale. An internal survey of highway troopers conducted this spring revealed a lack of faith in leadership. Many troopers expressed concern that decisions were being made for political reasons. Rather than address those concerns, Mr. Knudsen improperly fired a trooper after 10 years of honorable service for sharing a summary of the survey with her colleagues. Notably, that survey is a public document and the Montana Constitution provides all citizens with a fundamental constitutional right to examine public documents.
Montanans also have a fundamental right to privacy, enshrined in our Constitution. Our government is a limited government that cannot interfere with personal freedom and liberty. Rather than uphold the right to privacy, the Attorney General has undermined it by repeatedly attempting to interfere with the medical decision-making rights of doctors and women.
He has also refused to follow the law and court orders, despite being Montana’s top law enforcement official. Montana’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel has charged him with 41 violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct which govern all attorneys. Austin Knudsen has injected his political agenda into the operations of the DOJ, where political activism and partisan favoritism have no place.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet so many of you while campaigning for Attorney General. We don’t always agree on every political issue, but I am so encouraged by the fact that Montanans’ values are so consistent with the key role the Attorney General plays. We have much more in common than what divides us. We all want safe neighborhoods and an impartial justice system. We all want an independent judiciary to protect us from government overreach. We all want the rights guaranteed by the Montana Constitution to be upheld and honored, especially by our elected officials. We do not want extremists to run the government.
We can make it happen. The first step is making a change in November.
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