Democrats Poised to Sweep State Offices

Democrat Steve Bullock won a hard-fought race become Montana's next attorney general. Photo by JEREK WOLCOTT.

With Gov. Brian Schweiter leading the way, Democrats were on the verge early this morning of sweeping all of the state offices on yesterday's ballot.

As expected, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican, won their re-elections races easily but races for state offices were harder-fought affairs.

Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Brad Johnson was trailing his Democratic opponent Linda McCulloch in a close race, but other Democrats were winning by convincing margins.

Democrat Steve Bullock defeated Republican Tim Fox in the attorney general's race, which featured some of the most negative TV adds of the campaign.

In the state auditor's race, former legislator Monica Lindeen, a Democrat, held a commanding margin over Republican Duane Grimes, another former legislator.

Democrat Denise Juneau defeated Republican Elaine Sollie Herman in the race for superintendent of public instruction.

In the nonpartisan race for chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court, Attorney General Mike McGrath won a lopsided race against challenger Ron Waterman of Helena.

Montanans also voted on a trio of ballot issues. They approved a renewal of the six-mill property tax levy to fund higher education and voted to expand health care coverage for Montana children under the CHIPs program. They rejected a proposal to allow the state to invest more of its trust fund revenue in the stock market.