Right-to-know part of lawsuit to overturn decision removing GOP lawmakers from 2026 ballot
Permutations of our right-to-know (and government secrecy) keep showing up in the biggest political issues in the state. Read the excellent story below to see how it’s part of the lawsuit from two GOP lawmakers attempting to block AG Austin Knudsen’s last-minute decision essentially tossing those lawmakers off the 2026 general election ballot — Mike Dennison
By Jordan Hansen
(of the Daily Montanan)
Two Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit Friday over a term limit decision made by Attorney General Austin Knudsen this week that would remove them from the ballot in November.
The legal action comes as the state Republican Party is preparing to replace the candidates on the ballot, barring a judge’s intervention.
Montana lawmakers are limited to serving eight years in each the House and Senate within a 16-year period. Some lawmakers have stayed in office longer than 16 years by switching between chambers.
But Knudsen’s decision overturned a 2012 decision by then-Attorney General and Democrat Steve Bullock, which interpreted the term limits statute as allowing candidates to run for election if they had eight years of the last 16 out of their previous chamber by the start of the next term.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen testifies before the Montana Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2025. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan)
Knudsen instead says that serving for eight of the last 16 years disqualifies a candidate from election back into a chamber — even if the next term they serve would be outside the term limit window.
The lawsuit, filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court by House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, Rep. Llew Jones and Ted Kronebusch, chairman of the Pondera County Republican Central Committee, says Bullock’s opinion was constitutional and Knudsen’s “ignores the statutory construct and seeks to turn nearly 15 years of practice and precedent on its head.”
The suit is asking the court to prevent the opinion from applying to the 2026 general election and a judgement permitting a candidate to seek office after an eight-year break in service, essentially consistent with Bullock’s 2012 opinion.
Senate President Matt Regier, a Flathead Republican, requested Knudsen look at Jones’s eligibility on July 9, just six weeks before the ballot certification deadline, which is August 20.
The lawsuit argues Regier lacked standing to ask the attorney general for an opinion on the matter in the first place. It also says Knudsen “lacked the authority” to issue the decision as well.
“The issue decided by AG Knudsen relates to the issue of eligibility for office and ballot certification, neither of which have anything to do with the office of the Senate president,” the suit reads. “The job of the Senate president is to administer and operate the Senate, not decide eligibility questions for candidates for that body.”
Montana law also prohibits the attorney general from issuing an opinion “depriving” a candidate for office from appearing on the ballot “absent a court order,” the lawsuit goes on to read.
Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad. (Provided by the Montana Legislature)
“Montana law specifically states Plaintiffs Jones and Fitzpatrick, when filing the declaration, met the constitutional requirements to hold elected office,” the suit says. “Indeed, the Secretary of State accepted each declaration as valid when both were certified for the primary election. The only way that determination can be overruled is by a court order.”
The suit also points out numerous candidates have been allowed in the past to move from chamber to chamber every eight years, and then return to the original chamber they started in after 16 years.
Additionally, the suit claims the opinion was “crafted in secret” and that Jones only knew about the suit when contacted by a member of the press.
“The Attorney General violated the right to participate found in the Montana Constitution, which is particularly egregious here given how the opinion affects the voters and the two candidates who desire to serve their communities and prevailed in the June primary election,” the suit reads.
Jones, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and an architect of the state budget, beat Rep. Zach Wirth in the Republican primary earlier this year. Jones was part of a moderate group of lawmakers sometimes referred to as the “solutions caucus” and was often at odds with Regier’s agenda last session.
Jones wrote a statement about the issue, which, in part, said:
“Steve Fitzpatrick and I both lead groups of legislators who put the folks back home ahead of the party bosses and the out-of-state donors who write the party big checks. Our independence angers people who would rather buy a delegation than persuade one,” Jones wrote. “The party-before-people crowd lost at the ballot box, so they now look to win by way of a like-minded Attorney General’s legal opinion. I take it as a badge of honor to be targeted for prioritizing those I represent, as every legislator should.”
Meanwhile, on Friday, the Montana Republican Party Central Committee passed a resolution “supporting Montana’s constitutional term limits” and establishing an “expedited process” to replace Fitzpatrick and Jones.
The resolution instructs the GOP Central Committees in Lewis and Clark, Pondera, Teton and Toole Counties to each appoint three members to a committee to designate a replacement candidate for Jones’s district. It also instructed the Central Committee in Cascade County to find a replacement for Fitzpatrick.
“Montana voters made their position clear when they adopted constitutional term limits, and the Montana Republican Party respects their decision,” MTGOP Chairman Art Wittich said in a statement. “At the same time, even at this late date, Republican voters in Senate District 9 and House District 24 should be able to vote for a Republican candidates in November. The MTGOP will act quickly to ensure their voices are represented on the ballot.”