Tony Hudson – Republican on a mission

by Victoria Howell

Ravalli County is a solidly Republican county in a solidly Republican state. But, there appears to be a growing rift in the Montana Republican Party, and at least part of that rift originated in Ravalli County. 

Tony Hudson is a Stevensville rancher active in local Republican politics. He’s also been a member of the Stevensville School Board for about five years, working alongside people with varied perspectives. He said he’s spent a lot of time learning how things work, and coming to the understanding that you don’t always have to change the laws to accomplish your goals. The most important thing is following the laws and processes you do have, and finding common ground among all parties involved. 

A couple of years ago he became concerned that the Ravalli County Republican Central Committee, on which he currently serves as a precinct captain, was not following the law in regard to its election of officers. He claims that the local leadership quietly changed their bylaws in order to bypass legal requirements. He took the issue to court and received a favorable ruling, but now the dilemma for him is how to get central committees throughout the state to follow the law.

“We have a disagreement over the holding of county conventions and the rewriting of Republican Party bylaws and whether they are in conflict with Montana law,” says Hudson. “I believe they are, so I filed for a writ of mandamus in Ravalli County district court and the judge ruled in my favor.”

A writ of mandamus is a court order compelling a government official, agency, or lower court to perform a specific duty they are legally required to do, but have refused or neglected to perform. 

As Hudson explains it, the essence of the ruling by the district court was that Montana law (MCA 13-38-205) requires that, following primary elections, county central committees must reorganize prior to state conventions. The reason is so that the precinct captains who are elected by the public have actual standing.

“If local conventions/reorganizations are not held then the vote of the people is subjugated,” says Hudson. “One of the major purposes of the county conventions is that those elected officials represent the county at the state convention. This is important because the state party wields an incredible amount of power and influence, both through monetization and party name.”

Hudson claims that the district court ruling upset a lot of party officials because they were in favor of current county leadership as a majority. Various members of the Montana GOP, including the current leadership, raised money to appeal the ruling to the Montana Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court upheld the district court ruling, but also ruled it moot because in Ravalli County the convention had been held and officers were elected appropriately. Following Hudson’s filing of the writ of mandamus the central committee held the convention and new officers were elected. Hudson was elected as a delegate to the state convention.

“The reason this [process] is important is because there are only a handful of committees in the state who held these legal county conventions after the primary,” says Hudson. “If state leaders got themselves elected at state convention by the use of votes from delegates who hadn’t been duly elected according to the law, that’s a problem.”

“These people were used, the majority of these central committees were unaware, the Supreme Court had not yet ruled,” says Hudson. “Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, here’s the quandary. For most of the state, the past leadership terms have expired, and current leadership has not been elected in a manner consistent with state law. Who are the only people who followed state law and are they the true leadership of the party? The leadership that was improperly elected doesn’t even have the authority to call a new convention.”

Hudson believes the only legal solution at this juncture is for the party members who followed the law prior to the state convention and held legal reorganizations to meet and decide on appropriate action in accordance with Montana law, Montana GOP rules and Robert’s Rules of Order.

Hudson says the following questions need to be addressed: is current leadership acting outside the law on a daily basis? Are solicitations for money tantamount to mail fraud? Do donors have civil recourse against party officials who are misrepresenting the party or misrepresenting themselves?

“Personally, I’m the biggest outlaw who comes through the door, but I’m willing to pay the price,” says Hudson. “But when it comes to public policy, you have to stay inside the bounds, or you don’t have a country. If I get to make up the rules as I go along, you no longer have governance, you don’t have a republic.” 

He says his overall goal is trying to bring people together for a greater purpose. He says it doesn’t matter what your political views are, “what matters is the rule of law, the process.”

“This can be solved by party leadership stepping down and people who follow the law taking over,” says Hudson. “If you left it up to me, I would call the central committees that follow the law and I would ask that we engage committee members across the state on solutions, so that we restore the party’s legitimacy. But it’s not entirely up to me. I’m one person in a group of people in four or five committees that I don’t know the total number of. The safest path is to reconvene, acknowledge legal findings, install interim officers, and call for a new convention to legally elect new officers. Sadly, I don’t think current party leadership is going to go willingly. I think that will take a court order. For that, somebody would have to file an action.”

Hudson said at this point he really doesn’t want that person to be him. He has already spent about $40,000 on the previous lawsuit.

“I really hope others will step up,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is provoke some real thought. I think this has a lot of traction. I have a lot of faith in my fellow Montanans. I think most people when they know the right thing, they’ll do the right thing.”