Faith
Montana Governor Judy Martz (R) 2001 - 2005
Shane Hedges was landing in Circle, Montana along with Lt. Governor Judy Martz when the wheels on the plane popped.
That's when the future Governor knew she'd found her campaign manager.
"We came into the airport hot, too fast, and they had just resurfaced the runway and the aggregate was still pretty rough and it just shredded the tires - tore the tires off the plane. We went straight out into the field," Governor Martz recalled, "when I watched Shane through that, it scared him but that night at the Republican dinner and I saw how he handled himself I knew I wanted him to handle my campaign."
Faith, reflection and prayer mark the decisions Governor Martz has made through her personal and political life. Her early career, as an Olympic speed skater, taught her how to compete.
"Years ago, I met a speed skater, Sylvia White was her name. She was a national speed skating champion, a good friend. I had speed skated my whole life. We were not a wealthy family, we couldn't afford lift tickets and ski equipment, so I would skate.
"She said, 'why don't you come skate with me?' She beat me from about here to the end of the table and the coach said, 'why don't you start training with us?' And so I did. I chased her for quite a while and I would get beside her and I could not get past. One night I went to bed and I thought to myself, 'tomorrow when I get there I'm not going to think about anything but the goal. I'm not going to think that I'm tired.'"
Young Judy Martz won the ice the next day and embarked on a journey to the Innsbruck Olympics in 1964. She fell in her race there, injuring herself in competition and left without a medal. For Martz, it marked a new beginning.
"You have to stay focused on your goal. You should not be thrown apart like something being tethered by the wind. If you change your goal every time someone has a good idea, you will serve nobody," the Governor advised.
Back home in Butte, she and her husband struggled to keep the doors open on their commercial waste hauling business.
"When we first started, there were times we were down to no trucks, all of them broke down, we had no money, no trucks and I would just kept going," she said.
As a sophomore in high school she had campaigned for local candidates, going door-to-door with flyers. She said that she learned then that believed people can make a difference through public service. And she wanted to help.
She took a job in the Butte office of U.S. Senator Conrad Burns and in 1997, after seven years with Senator Burns, the political landscape experienced a dramatic shift. Lt. Governor Denny Rehberg resigned his position to run against Democratic U.S. Senator Max Baucus leaving Governor Marc Racicot without a lieutenant.
"Three people came in, over the course of a week or so, and they said 'you should ask Marc Racicot to consider you for Lt. Governor.' So I prayed about it for two weeks, I didn't tell anyone I was thinking about it. I wanted to seek my own heart and do it for the right reason and I came to the conclusion that I thought I could. And then I asked my husband, Harry. He said yes. So then I asked my two children and they both said, 'yes Mom, ask.'
"The reason it took me so long was that I wanted to be confirmed in my heart that it wouldn't be for a selfish reason. Racicot was considering 25-some people. To me it's important to know it's not something I needed. I wasn't seeking any glory. At the same time I was helping Harry with our garbage business. I always figured with the way people talk about politics that my background would serve me well. And I had a real peace about it."
Judy Martz asked Governor Racicot to be considered and then she began to wait.
Weeks passed and she received no word.
"He didn't call, and I thought, 'faith without action is dead' so I started packing my belongings out of Senator Burns' office and two days later he called."
She decided she would set out to transform the office of Lt. Governor, focusing the power of that office on mental health issues and small business in Montana. She recalled meeting with the Speaker of the House during her only term as Lt. Governor and talk turned to whom would replace Governor Racicot, who was being term-limited out of office.
"And he said, 'Judy Martz - no one would ever think of that.' And it made me mad inside, that someone would be so presumptuous. It was like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog. It wasn't the reason that I ran but I did take on some issues as Lt Governor that would make a difference. As I made those work I decided inside myself, two years in, that I would run."
She was well connected to the Republican party after working for Senator Burns and serving as Lt. Governor. But she wasn't viewed by party establishment as a serious candidate.
"I didn't think she was ready to be the Governor," Hedges admitted. When the tires blew on that plane, he had been managing a congressional campaign.
"Judy is as compassionate and loyal a human being as you will ever find. She was very well-spoken and she has a way of connecting with an audience that few have. She didn't have a grasp of the complexity of the issues and she was riding a wave of popularity for Governor Racicot. But it was through her own will and fortitude, I came to realize, her heart was in the right place. If she was to win it would be by force of will."
Hedges began putting a campaign team together.
"She had been talking to Karl Ohs about being her Lt. Governor. Karl had come on board very early, which is unorthodox. Judy wanted to have a team from the outset. She had decided that Karl should run too and then she and Karl both worked on me to come do this race. The main issue was that she was a woman," Hedges recalled. Montana had never elected a woman to its highest office.
She had a kitchen cabinet in place but none of her advisers had much political experience.
"These were Judy's friends who were very well-meaning but didn't understand the dynamics nor were attuned or prepared for the enormity a statewide campaign. It was a struggle to get a team around her and the people who were there didn't want to be pushed aside. I was able to convince Elaine Slighter, she came on as finance director and immediately I went to work at getting a campaign consultant. I was 25 and I wasn't prepared at the time. We brought them on right away and we were able to negotiate a deal. They worked for less money on the front end.
"Then we set about creating the volunteer network. That was a really hard thing to do because a lot of people shared my concern that Judy was not really ready. We did a good job of getting the party establishment comfortable with Judy. Then the business community got a little more comfortable, the Main Street business men and women. It all came together in relatively short order and by December we had all 56 counties in place with county chairmen, and we hit the Lincoln Day circuit that spring and we hit it running. The team we cultivated and built and nurtured became Judy's strongest champions."
With an organization in place, and vocal support from her former employer, Senator Burns, Martz was able to convince her more formidable opponents to stay out of the race. In the primary she faced Rob Natelson, a university professor.
"He is a very conservative fellow, he's the gadfly of Montana politics," Hedges said.
"Natelson's a smart guy," the Governor insisted, "in our debates he would take out graphs with figures and he'd say, 'here's what we're going to do.' My graph was a picture of my Dad, who was in his 80s, and I'd say, 'this is my Dad, and this is his granddaughter and this is what I'm going to do.' Natelson hated it."
Her stature also proved to be an advantage over Natelson who was a small man. Martz towered over him when they stood side-by-side.
"I always wore my highest heels when we debated," she admitted.
When the votes were counted, Natelson had received 40 percent.
"It told us that there was a segment of the population that felt either she wasn't conservative enough or that she wasn't Christian enough. It forced the party afterwards, to unite around Judy and it made her focus. It forced us to spend money early-on, defining her before the Democrats could do so," Hedges recalled.
Martz defined herself as an Olympian and a small businesswoman who understood what it took to keep a business running - to pay your taxes and make a good life for your family.
"We needed to demonstrate that she was tough enough for the job," Hedges said, "and we knew it was going to be a race about contrast - the stark contrast between these two folks. "
Her opponent was Mark O'Keefe and early in the race a political action group had targeted him as being anti-business and they were running negative ads about him.
"He went on a five-city tour to explain why they were running these ads. He said it was because these businesses knew that he was going to be their worst nightmare. He handed us that, O'Keefe says to Montana businesses: I'm gonna be their worst nightmare," Hedges recalled.
Polling had Martz in the lead for most of the race but in the waning days of the election, O'Keefe set about a media blitz, spending millions to try to win the Governor's race.
"He had multiple ads and he was running them all the time," Hedges recalled, "he had to overcome 'the worst nightmare' statement and he also said some things about Judy, that she wasn't capable of being governor. But he was trying to be all things to all people - he wasn't focused - when you have that much money you think you can do that."
Toward the end, the strain of the race almost caused Martz to throw in the towel.
"Mark O'Keefe's wife was a Dayton-Hudson heir," the Governor explained, "we were a few weeks out and they were doing the airwaves and with two-point-something million dollars. He was hiring people to take three-color flyers door-to-door with just out-and-out lies. And it's late, there's no time to refute them. I was campaigning and still carrying on my job as Lt. Governor and I said to Shane, 'we're not going to win the General.'
"I was so tired, it was fatigue. I went to bed, and it was probably 11 o'clock in the morning when I went to bed and didn't get up until the next morning and I went back to it then. I never looked back.
"It was like you get back in the starting blocks. My athletic career served me so well in this. When I passed Sylvia, it was easy because I didn't take my eyes off my goal."
Just a week prior to election day O'Keefe had pulled ahead by 10 points.
"I really thought we'd lost it, but it turned around," Hedges admitted, "I can tell you plainly that I have never worked that hard in my life - before or after that campaign. Those were the hardest 15 months of my entire professional life, but I did it because I believed in Judy and I respected her greatly - and together our team made history." The soon to be Governor Martz had not lost faith.
"I knew in my heart that we had it won. I told my son, who was racing motorcycles, 'if you're in a race and someone passes you, pass them back again and 99 times out of a hundred that takes the wind out of their sails. They are as afraid of you as you are of them," she said.
When would-be candidates sake her advice these days she tells them to make sure they are doing it for the right reason.
"And the right reason is, do you think you can make a difference for the people you said you'd serve? Why would you run? Why would you do this? It is hard on your family. My kids got very bitter over the way the media treated their Mom. I'm really sorry for the pain it has inflicted on the kids and it's long lasting. But you can make a difference. One person with a good team around them can make a difference. I would be foolish to say I could do this by myself."
Shane Hedges was landing in Circle, Montana along with Lt. Governor Judy Martz when the wheels on the plane popped.
That's when the future Governor knew she'd found her campaign manager.
"We came into the airport hot, too fast, and they had just resurfaced the runway and the aggregate was still pretty rough and it just shredded the tires - tore the tires off the plane. We went straight out into the field," Governor Martz recalled, "when I watched Shane through that, it scared him but that night at the Republican dinner and I saw how he handled himself I knew I wanted him to handle my campaign."
Faith, reflection and prayer mark the decisions Governor Martz has made through her personal and political life. Her early career, as an Olympic speed skater, taught her how to compete.
"Years ago, I met a speed skater, Sylvia White was her name. She was a national speed skating champion, a good friend. I had speed skated my whole life. We were not a wealthy family, we couldn't afford lift tickets and ski equipment, so I would skate.
"She said, 'why don't you come skate with me?' She beat me from about here to the end of the table and the coach said, 'why don't you start training with us?' And so I did. I chased her for quite a while and I would get beside her and I could not get past. One night I went to bed and I thought to myself, 'tomorrow when I get there I'm not going to think about anything but the goal. I'm not going to think that I'm tired.'"
Young Judy Martz won the ice the next day and embarked on a journey to the Innsbruck Olympics in 1964. She fell in her race there, injuring herself in competition and left without a medal. For Martz, it marked a new beginning.
"You have to stay focused on your goal. You should not be thrown apart like something being tethered by the wind. If you change your goal every time someone has a good idea, you will serve nobody," the Governor advised.
Back home in Butte, she and her husband struggled to keep the doors open on their commercial waste hauling business.
"When we first started, there were times we were down to no trucks, all of them broke down, we had no money, no trucks and I would just kept going," she said.
As a sophomore in high school she had campaigned for local candidates, going door-to-door with flyers. She said that she learned then that believed people can make a difference through public service. And she wanted to help.
She took a job in the Butte office of U.S. Senator Conrad Burns and in 1997, after seven years with Senator Burns, the political landscape experienced a dramatic shift. Lt. Governor Denny Rehberg resigned his position to run against Democratic U.S. Senator Max Baucus leaving Governor Marc Racicot without a lieutenant.
"Three people came in, over the course of a week or so, and they said 'you should ask Marc Racicot to consider you for Lt. Governor.' So I prayed about it for two weeks, I didn't tell anyone I was thinking about it. I wanted to seek my own heart and do it for the right reason and I came to the conclusion that I thought I could. And then I asked my husband, Harry. He said yes. So then I asked my two children and they both said, 'yes Mom, ask.'
"The reason it took me so long was that I wanted to be confirmed in my heart that it wouldn't be for a selfish reason. Racicot was considering 25-some people. To me it's important to know it's not something I needed. I wasn't seeking any glory. At the same time I was helping Harry with our garbage business. I always figured with the way people talk about politics that my background would serve me well. And I had a real peace about it."
Judy Martz asked Governor Racicot to be considered and then she began to wait.
Weeks passed and she received no word.
"He didn't call, and I thought, 'faith without action is dead' so I started packing my belongings out of Senator Burns' office and two days later he called."
She decided she would set out to transform the office of Lt. Governor, focusing the power of that office on mental health issues and small business in Montana. She recalled meeting with the Speaker of the House during her only term as Lt. Governor and talk turned to whom would replace Governor Racicot, who was being term-limited out of office.
"And he said, 'Judy Martz - no one would ever think of that.' And it made me mad inside, that someone would be so presumptuous. It was like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog. It wasn't the reason that I ran but I did take on some issues as Lt Governor that would make a difference. As I made those work I decided inside myself, two years in, that I would run."
She was well connected to the Republican party after working for Senator Burns and serving as Lt. Governor. But she wasn't viewed by party establishment as a serious candidate.
"I didn't think she was ready to be the Governor," Hedges admitted. When the tires blew on that plane, he had been managing a congressional campaign.
"Judy is as compassionate and loyal a human being as you will ever find. She was very well-spoken and she has a way of connecting with an audience that few have. She didn't have a grasp of the complexity of the issues and she was riding a wave of popularity for Governor Racicot. But it was through her own will and fortitude, I came to realize, her heart was in the right place. If she was to win it would be by force of will."
Hedges began putting a campaign team together.
"She had been talking to Karl Ohs about being her Lt. Governor. Karl had come on board very early, which is unorthodox. Judy wanted to have a team from the outset. She had decided that Karl should run too and then she and Karl both worked on me to come do this race. The main issue was that she was a woman," Hedges recalled. Montana had never elected a woman to its highest office.
She had a kitchen cabinet in place but none of her advisers had much political experience.
"These were Judy's friends who were very well-meaning but didn't understand the dynamics nor were attuned or prepared for the enormity a statewide campaign. It was a struggle to get a team around her and the people who were there didn't want to be pushed aside. I was able to convince Elaine Slighter, she came on as finance director and immediately I went to work at getting a campaign consultant. I was 25 and I wasn't prepared at the time. We brought them on right away and we were able to negotiate a deal. They worked for less money on the front end.
"Then we set about creating the volunteer network. That was a really hard thing to do because a lot of people shared my concern that Judy was not really ready. We did a good job of getting the party establishment comfortable with Judy. Then the business community got a little more comfortable, the Main Street business men and women. It all came together in relatively short order and by December we had all 56 counties in place with county chairmen, and we hit the Lincoln Day circuit that spring and we hit it running. The team we cultivated and built and nurtured became Judy's strongest champions."
With an organization in place, and vocal support from her former employer, Senator Burns, Martz was able to convince her more formidable opponents to stay out of the race. In the primary she faced Rob Natelson, a university professor.
"He is a very conservative fellow, he's the gadfly of Montana politics," Hedges said.
"Natelson's a smart guy," the Governor insisted, "in our debates he would take out graphs with figures and he'd say, 'here's what we're going to do.' My graph was a picture of my Dad, who was in his 80s, and I'd say, 'this is my Dad, and this is his granddaughter and this is what I'm going to do.' Natelson hated it."
Her stature also proved to be an advantage over Natelson who was a small man. Martz towered over him when they stood side-by-side.
"I always wore my highest heels when we debated," she admitted.
When the votes were counted, Natelson had received 40 percent.
"It told us that there was a segment of the population that felt either she wasn't conservative enough or that she wasn't Christian enough. It forced the party afterwards, to unite around Judy and it made her focus. It forced us to spend money early-on, defining her before the Democrats could do so," Hedges recalled.
Martz defined herself as an Olympian and a small businesswoman who understood what it took to keep a business running - to pay your taxes and make a good life for your family.
"We needed to demonstrate that she was tough enough for the job," Hedges said, "and we knew it was going to be a race about contrast - the stark contrast between these two folks. "
Her opponent was Mark O'Keefe and early in the race a political action group had targeted him as being anti-business and they were running negative ads about him.
"He went on a five-city tour to explain why they were running these ads. He said it was because these businesses knew that he was going to be their worst nightmare. He handed us that, O'Keefe says to Montana businesses: I'm gonna be their worst nightmare," Hedges recalled.
Polling had Martz in the lead for most of the race but in the waning days of the election, O'Keefe set about a media blitz, spending millions to try to win the Governor's race.
"He had multiple ads and he was running them all the time," Hedges recalled, "he had to overcome 'the worst nightmare' statement and he also said some things about Judy, that she wasn't capable of being governor. But he was trying to be all things to all people - he wasn't focused - when you have that much money you think you can do that."
Toward the end, the strain of the race almost caused Martz to throw in the towel.
"Mark O'Keefe's wife was a Dayton-Hudson heir," the Governor explained, "we were a few weeks out and they were doing the airwaves and with two-point-something million dollars. He was hiring people to take three-color flyers door-to-door with just out-and-out lies. And it's late, there's no time to refute them. I was campaigning and still carrying on my job as Lt. Governor and I said to Shane, 'we're not going to win the General.'
"I was so tired, it was fatigue. I went to bed, and it was probably 11 o'clock in the morning when I went to bed and didn't get up until the next morning and I went back to it then. I never looked back.
"It was like you get back in the starting blocks. My athletic career served me so well in this. When I passed Sylvia, it was easy because I didn't take my eyes off my goal."
Just a week prior to election day O'Keefe had pulled ahead by 10 points.
"I really thought we'd lost it, but it turned around," Hedges admitted, "I can tell you plainly that I have never worked that hard in my life - before or after that campaign. Those were the hardest 15 months of my entire professional life, but I did it because I believed in Judy and I respected her greatly - and together our team made history." The soon to be Governor Martz had not lost faith.
"I knew in my heart that we had it won. I told my son, who was racing motorcycles, 'if you're in a race and someone passes you, pass them back again and 99 times out of a hundred that takes the wind out of their sails. They are as afraid of you as you are of them," she said.
When would-be candidates sake her advice these days she tells them to make sure they are doing it for the right reason.
"And the right reason is, do you think you can make a difference for the people you said you'd serve? Why would you run? Why would you do this? It is hard on your family. My kids got very bitter over the way the media treated their Mom. I'm really sorry for the pain it has inflicted on the kids and it's long lasting. But you can make a difference. One person with a good team around them can make a difference. I would be foolish to say I could do this by myself."
