March 19, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1972 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION (CON CON) DELEGATES ANNOUNCE OPPOSITION TO PARTISAN JUDGES FOR MONTANA
(Helena, MT) – On behalf of six living 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention Delegates, Mae Nan Ellingson, retired attorney and youngest of the the 100 delegates, announced that the six living delegates had united to stand in opposition to efforts in the legislature to turn Montana’s judges into partisan office holders. Other ConCon delegates joining in the statement were Gene Harbaugh, a delegate/minister from Poplar; Jerome Loendorf, a delegate/attorney from Helena; Lyle Monroe, a health & social worker delegate from Great Falls; Lynne Sparks Keeley, a public relations specialist/delegate from Butte; and Marshall Murray, an attorney/delegate from Kalispell. There were 100 citizen delegates who wrote and signed the Constitution after toiling for 56 days in early 1972. Ellingson, Murray and Loendorf served as Republican delegates while Keeley, Harbaugh and Monroe were Democratic delegates.*
“We ran on a partisan ballot, but served as Montanans, being seated alphabetically rather than by political party. We shared committees and chairmanships, and worked side-by-side in a non-partisan manner to build a better state,” Ellingson said. “The product of those non-partisan efforts was the best state Constitution in America and one of the most respected Constitutional documents in the world. Today, 53 years later, we unanimously oppose legislative efforts to turn Montana’s judges into partisan tools.”
“While we openly and sometimes strongly debated draft provisions from the convention committees, when the time came to sign the completed document, all 100 delegates, to the person, rose and walked down the aisle, put their pens to paper and unanimously signed Montana’s new Constitution, proud of what we had accomplished for the people of Montana, regardless of political affiliation,” Ellingson added. “It would be a grave disservice to the people of Montana to turn our non-partisan judges into partisan warriors, toeing a party line.”
Ellingson added, on behalf of the ConCon delegates, that Montana has, over the last 90 years, operated completely with non-Partisan judges in non-Partisan courtrooms. She said Montanans expect their justice to be blind, based upon the facts and the law, not upon partisan preferences. “We tried it differently from 1889 to 1935 under the Copper Kings and the Copper Collar, and the people did not like it. Since 1936 we have stayed away from partisanship in our courts. In 1972, the Constitutional Convention opted to continue that structure,” she added.
Ellingson added that perhaps no article of the Constitution attracted as much research, interest and highly contested debate and discussion as the judicial article. “Reformers had touted merit selection and appointment of judges or in the alternative, the public financing of an elected judiciary. But Montana’s long held tradition of elected judges prevailed. We maintained what was in place long before the 1972 Convention. And no group or delegate ever proposed that the partisan election of judges would improve the quality of justice in Montana.”
She asked legislators “to resist those who seek to insert partisan political power into our courtrooms. Keep partisan politics in the two partisan branches – the Legislature and the Executive – and preserve the integrity of our judges and courtrooms by keeping them independent and non-Partisan.”
The group of living ConCon delegates sent a letter directly to all 150 legislators requesting they defeat any and all efforts toward partisan judges and other radical changes in Montana’s judiciary, such as a new unelected court to address constitutional issues. “Our version of Madisonian Democracy works perfectly well here in Montana and should not be changed because some might disagree with some judicial decisions. That is how we who wrote the Constitution feel!”
*The seventh living delegate, former broadcaster/attorney/delegate Robert Vermillion, was unavailable to participate with the other living delegates.