Montana election recap, 2012

November 15, 2012

Montana: In the race for Position 5 on the Montana Supreme Court, Laurie McKinnon and Ed Sheehy competed to become the successor of associate justice James Nelson (Montana) who will retire at the end of this year. There was a negative ad during the campaign targeting Attorney Sheehy that labeled him as judicial activist. The ad was put up by an organization unrelated to Sheehy's opponent McKinnon, who denounced the ad after being asked to do so by Sheehy. After the November 6th results were tallied, 9th Judicial District Court Judge Laurie McKinnon was declared the winner with 53% of the vote.

In the state's trial court races all 24 judges standing for retention were retained and all incumbents re-elected. One race that made frequently made the news was the 12-way race for the Lake County Justice Court. The winner of the race was Arlee attorney JoAnn Jayne, who was accused of illegal campaigning at the polls shortly after the election. Jayne denied this allegations and as of now there has been no investigation into the matter.

For more information on this year's judicial elections in Montana, see: Montana judicial elections, 2012.