Down-ballot candidates that deserve attention

With the tidal wave of political advertising swamping the media, the down-ballot candidates are completely drowned out by the PAC candidates at the top of the ticket. There are important details of down-ballot candidates, however, that deserve our attention. Take, for example, the candidates Erin Farris-Olsen and John Repke.

The clerk of the Supreme Court is somehow still an elected office in Montana. Though ministerial and not a policy-making position, it is elected on a partisan basis. It shouldn’t be. 

Erin Farris-Olsen is extremely well-qualified to be clerk of the Supreme Court, and most importantly, clearly understands what the job entails, having served as a practicing attorney, and notably, as a law clerk for the Supreme Court.  Importantly, Farris-Olsen is committed to impartiality and keeping politics out of the office. After all, the clerk makes neither legal determinations nor public policy in this purely record-keeping administrative office. 

The current Clerk Bowen Greenwood prominently proclaims his Republican ties. That’s good politics in increasingly red Montana, and Greenwood knows it. The reality, though, is that correctly performing the duties of the clerk of the Montana Supreme Court has nothing to do with whether the office holder is a Democrat or Republican. 

Erin Farris-Olsen is running to return the clerk’s office to the fundamentally public service position it has always been over the course of Montana history. We don’t need “wannabe” politicians making clerk’s work political. 

Certainly, it is necessary and essential that the duties of this office be carried out impartially and not be compromised by political partisan favoritism. 

I probably could have voted for Greenwood before receiving his very partisan campaign mailing a few weeks ago. That triggered my looking more closely at this relatively obscure contest. That in turn confirmed for me the clear best choice for clerk of the Montana Supreme Court is Erin Farris-Olsen.   

In the race for state auditor, I am supporting John Repke. The Auditor’s Office, also known as the Commissioner of Insurance, was established to “protect Montana insurance consumers” and is no place for partisan politics. We need competent, principled and full-time dedicated leadership in the Auditor’s office. That’s what Repke will bring.    

I personally know John Repke to be a man of great integrity. He is quick to generously volunteer his time and energy for community service. In addition, he has four decades of successful private sector experience directly relevant to the duties of the auditor. These include property, liability and health care insurance, securities and general management. John has had the decision-making responsibility of serving as CFO of several companies.    

John Repke has a deep and broad understanding of the industries regulated by the auditor, and that’s essential to effectively protecting Montana consumers. 

In sharp contrast, his opponent James Brown is a career lobbyist and politician. Most recently, he lost a race for the Supreme Court in which he solicited and accepted partisan campaign cash for this nonpartisan position. He has worked with out-of-state dark money groups to undermine the campaigns of moderate Republicans.  

And while earning around $120,000 and a comfortable pension as a member of the Public Service Commission, a state agency intended to protect captive Montana utility customers, he continued to work other gigs and then hit the ratepayers with a 25% rate increase — the largest utility rate increase in Montana history. 

Brown sees the Auditor’s Office as a steppingstone to further his ambitions. He is running to serve himself.   

Repke is running to do the job of serving and protecting Montana consumers. The choice could not be clearer. Select John Repke.

Bob Brown is a former Montana secretary of state and state Senate president. He lives in Whitefish.