Alke, Knudsen vie for attorney general position

Montana’s attorney general race features an incumbent self-branded as a defender of women and children versus a challenger who says the state’s justice department has been thrown into chaos under current leadership.

Attorney General Austin Knudsen presents himself as a hands-on defender of the weak in commercials, a message delivered with a soundtrack of buzzing guitars and pounding drums. He emphasizes the many lawsuits he’s brought with other Republican attorneys general against the federal agencies of Democratic President Joe Biden. 

Democratic challenger Ben Alke argues that behind Knudsen’s rhetoric there’s disarray at Montana’s Department of Justice. A Helena native who now practices law in Bozeman, Alke points to Knudsen’s low marks as a manager by the Montana Highway Patrol and the attorney general’s hearing this month on 41 counts of professional misconduct as proof.