Gillette Apparent Winner In House District 77 Race
Author: MT43 News
Jane Gillette’s strident hard-right conservatism appears victorious over Kyle McMurray’s moderation and backing of Gov. Greg Gianforte in the race for Republican nomination to the House District 77 seat in the Montana Legislature in Tuesday’s primary election.
Unofficial results reported Wednesday by the office of the secretary of state had Gillette with a 52-48 percent win at 1460 votes for Gillette and 1371 for McMurray. Two precincts in Gallatin County were as yet not fully tabulated. The district covers all of Broadwater County and a small portion of Gallatin County.
Jeremiah Dawson, a Three Forks political newcomer, was unopposed for the Democratic party nomination.
Gillette touted her membership in the legislature’s staunchly conservative Freedom Caucus. McMurray painted her as a progress-blocking extremist and himself as a “strong conservative” interested in getting things done.
In late April Gianforte, running for re-election, endorsed 58 legislative Republican primary candidates, including his pick of McMurray over Gillette. That brought an immediate dustup between them. Gillette called McMurray “a liberal funded by Democrats, transgender and medical lobbyists.” She called herself “a Trump conservative with an A-plus rating from the Family Foundation and Freedom Index.”
McMurray fired back, saying Gillette is “extremely conservative and that is how she votes. She tries to tout that she has a very stellar voting record; it is stellar only in the standards of the extreme right. Because of some of the extreme right opinions, we are not getting things done.” He blamed the far right in the last two legislative sessions for lack of progress in reforming property taxes. “I’m very conservative but I feel like I can work with other folks who also have good ideas and I think she’s proven she can’t.”
Gianforte campaign spokesperson Anna Marian Block said McMurray has been a friend of the governor for more than a decade and she called McMurray “a principled conservative, a proven leader with deep roots in his community, and a small business owner who will bring the perspective of Montana’s main streets to the Legislature.”
In early May, Gillette and fellow Gallatin Valley Republican Rep. Caleb Hinkle called for a special session of the Legislature to pass a law allowing judicial candidates to identify themselves by political party. Judicial elections in Montana are nonpartisan by law. And under rules of judicial conduct promulgated by the Montana Supreme Court, a judge or judicial candidate cannot identify himself or herself as a candidate of a political organization. In their letter asking for a special session, Hinkle and Gillette, along with 10 other cosigning legislators, said Montana’s nonpartisan judicial election system “deprives voters of the most important information about candidates, their party affiliation. As a result, Montana voters may unknowingly cast their ballots for judicial candidates who do not share their voters’ worldview.”
Gillette, a rural Three Forks resident, is completing her second term in the Legislature representing House District 64, which is being phased out of existence through decennial reapportionment. She holds a doctoral degree in dentistry and is an Air Force veteran.
McMurray, a lifelong resident of Gallatin County, was born and raised in Manhattan. He earned a degree in optometry and was a partner in Advanced Eyecare, Bozeman, for nearly four decades. He also worked in two real estate partnerships. Active in community affairs, he served eight years as a Manhattan school board trustee. In campaign advertising he bills himself as a successful business owner, and “pro-family, pro-life, pro-gun.”
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Image 1 Caption: Dr. Jane Gillette
Image 2 Caption: Kyle McMurray
