Racicot endorses Fox at Kalispell event last week

Montana Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Fox was in Kalispell last week to unveil his public safety strategy paper, but the announcement also came with the significant endorsement popular former Gov. Marc Racicot.

Racicot, a Republican, was governor from 1993-2001. He was also Montana’s attorney general from 1989 to 1992. In 2001 was named Chairman of the Republican National Committee and served until 2003. In 2004, he was chairman of former President George Bush’s re-election committee.

Racicot said Fox’s law enforcement experience was the best of any candidate on either side of the aisle, “second to none.”

“It’s one of the reason’s why I believe Tim will be the strongest Republican candidate in the general election,” Racicot said.

Fox’s public safety plan includes urging the federal government to strengthen the borders to fight drug and human trafficking. He noted the U.S. and Montana is seeing a huge surge of methamphetamine being imported from Mexico.

In his paper, he cites a state crime lab report that shows a “375 percent increase in meth found in postmortem cases, a 324 percent increase in meth found in DUI cases and a 415 percent increase in meth found in controlled substance cases.”

But simply locking everyone up wasn’t the solution, he noted.

He said treatment courts were a resource in helping people addicted to meth get clean again and their lives on track. But hardened criminals should receive jail time, he said.

He also notes in his report that DUI continues to be a major problem in the state, with Montana having one of the highest per capita DUI rates in the nation.

In his report, he said he wants to “work collaboratively to both strengthen DUI laws while working to get offenders access to the resources they need to reduce their likelihood of reoffending.”

But he also said he would “work to rollback reforms that have hindered law enforcement and put the community at risk.”

He said he wouldn’t support reforms that “only serve to reduce expenses at the cost of public safety and that fo nothing to address the overarching problem of increased crime rates.”

Racicot also struck a tone of civility of the Fox ticket, which includes Lt. Gov. candidate Jon Knokey, a Harvard graduate and former House District 65 representative.

“In my humble view, we need a leader in Montana presently, and the nation needs leaders like Tim Fox, a leader that respects the rights and thoughts of every Montanan. One who works hard without praise. One who is genuinely and honestly listening to the words and thoughts of others,” Racicot said.

Fox also talked some public land issues after the announcement.

He said he was willing to work with the parties in the Weyerhaeuser land deal to keep the land open to the public.

Weyerhaeuser recently announced it was selling its 620,000 acres of land in Northwest Montana to Southern Pines Plantation, a Macon, Georgia, land company. Southern Pines said it has no plans to block public access when it takes ownership in May, but many locals are skeptical.

Fox will square off against Congressman Greg Gianforte and state Sen. Al Olszewski in the June primary.