Bullock defeats Gianforte in close race for governor

HELENA (AP) — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock defeated Republican businessman Greg Gianforte in a close election that was the last statewide race decided in Tuesday's election.

Bullock's lead over Gianforte had shrunk through the night as vote counting continued Tuesday, with no clear winner emerging in the Montana governor's race until early Wednesday.

With 98 percent of the vote counted, Bullock had 226,399 votes (50 percent) compared to Gianforte's 214,899 votes (47 percent). Libertarian Ted Dunlap had 15,282 votes for the remaining 3 percent.

Bullock was seeking to keep the Democrats' 12-year hold on the governor's office for another four years in the conservative-leaning state, while Gianforte hoped to unseat Bullock by promising voters to bring high-paying jobs and cutting taxes.

Lines of voters stretched out of the door in some polling stations across the state. Most Montana voters cast absentee ballots, however. By Tuesday night, 316,000 absentee ballots had been turned in, which is about 45 percent of the state's registered voters.

Some voters expressed relief that the election had finally arrived after a long and vitriolic campaign season, particularly in the presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"I'm hopeful that it will fade and that we can get over all this ugliness," said Carol Jacobsen, a 73-year-old Helena retiree. "But I'm sure there are some people who will never get over it."

What appears to be strong voter turnout in the state may be due to the high interest in the presidential race, but it wasn't yet clear whether that would affect the governor's election.

Montana voters typically throw their support behind Republican presidential candidates, and Trump won the state this year. But down-ticket Republicans have had a tougher time: In the last three presidential elections, Montana voters have elected the Democratic candidate as governor while picking the GOP presidential candidate.

Bullock, the state's attorney general before being elected in 2012 as one of only 18 Democratic governors in the U.S., framed himself as a coalition builder and a champion of protecting public access to lands and waterways.

Gianforte is a conservative making his first run for political office after selling the software company he founded to Oracle for $1.8 billion. He ran on cutting taxes, bringing high-paying jobs to the state and reducing regulations that he said stymie businesses.

The two main candidates engaged in an escalating rhetorical war in the final weeks of the campaign as the race tightened.

Bullock repeatedly said Gianforte donating his campaign an unprecedented $5 million of his own money was evidence that the Bozeman businessman tried to buy the election. Gianforte responded that Bullock tried to do the same with financial support from political action committees and others totaling $255,000.

The Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association each spent millions on ads to influence the race.

Gianforte, backed by Republican lawmakers, tried to compare Bullock to Clinton by saying both mishandled official emails.

There is no record of Bullock's emails from his time as attorney general. Bullock has said he preserved the case files and other public records for that time, and let his prior email account lapse when he left office in 2013.

Officials with Bullock's Department of Administration said the emails were properly disposed of when Bullock left office, and a Department of Justice inquiry found it was unable to determine whether any messages should have been retained.

Bullock accused Gianforte of being against public access to land and waterways, running a business that helped other companies cut or outsource jobs and advocating for a statewide sales tax.

Gianforte denied the claims and countered by attacking Bullock for piggybacking campaign events on top of official business for which he used a state plane, once attending a Paul McCartney concert in Missoula in 2014.

Bullock partially reimbursed the state for trips in which campaign events were scheduled.