Green Party candidates on 2022 ballot, plaintiffs awarded fees

The Montana Secretary of State must recognize the Green Party as a political party in the State of Montana for the 2022 election, according to an order this week from a U.S. District Court in Montana.

Additionally, Judge Brian Morris said the plaintiffs who sued in the matter are awarded roughly $70,000 in total attorney fees and costs . The plaintiffs are the Montana Green Party along with eight registered voters, and the defendant is the Secretary of State.

The registered voters who are plaintiffs include Steve Kelly, who filed this year as a Green Party candidate to run in Bozeman’s House District 61. Kelly will try to unseat incumbent Democrat Jim Hamilton and fend off Republican Peter Bower.

“It’s been a long hard road as they say,” Kelly said in a brief phone call Friday. “But I guess miracles do happen, right?”

In November, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found Montana’s approach to qualifying candidates violated the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection because it resulted in “significant disparity” in how much a signature is worth.

The plaintiffs had sued after the Secretary of State decertified the Green Party from the 2018 ballot because the party didn’t collect enough signatures in enough districts based on the state’s requirements, according to the November opinion. That opinion affirmed part of an earlier decision and reversed and remanded part of it.

The March 30 judgment from the state’s Helena Division of U.S. District Court said a Montana law, MCA 13-10-606(2), is unconstitutional “to the extent it is in violation of one person, one vote” in its distribution requirement for signature gathering. 

In a phone call Friday, Quentin Rhoades, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the Montana Green Party ended up losing some steam in recent election cycles after the Montana Supreme Court affirmed a District Court decision barring it from the ballot.

“It really hurt the organizational structure because of the demoralizing effect,” said Rhoades, with Rhoades, Siefert and Erickson of Missoula. “This gives them something to focus on and reorganize and get back out there, if not necessarily for 2022, certainly for 2024. So they can now reinvigorate themselves, reorganize themselves, and become some sort of an influence in the elections again.”

Candidate filing for the U.S. House of Representatives, Public Service Commission, Montana Supreme Court, District Court, and legislative races closed on March 14.

No Green Party candidates are listed on the Secretary of State’s roster of candidates who have filed for non-legislative races. In legislative races, the only other candidate who filed with the Green Party is Gary Marbut, who previously ran for office as a Republican and has endorsed Republican candidates. Marbut will try to unseat incumbent Democrat Marilyn Marler as the House District 90 representative in Missoula; Republican Alan Ault and Libertarian Josiah Hinkle also are on the ballot in that race, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

In the current election system, Green Party candidates can pull votes away from Democrats, and Libertarians can get votes Republicans might have gotten. (At least a couple of political scientists recently advocated that Montana move to “ranked choice voting,” where voters rank candidates in order of preference, and votes are counted until a candidate gets a majority. The ranking system would increase the likelihood a candidate with broader support wins and decrease the “spoiler” factor.)

In Bozeman, Kelly said he’s an environmentalist and wildlife activist who isn’t afraid to stick up for the little guy, and his values have remained fairly consistent over the years. But he’s run for office as an Independent, a Democrat and a Republican. (In a Bozeman parade, he joked that he had Democrats running away from him on one side, and Republicans trying to run him over on the other.)

“I go where there’s opportunity,” Kelly said. “I feel like the church mouse, and when that door opens a crack, I’m in.”