Posted on 03/27/2002 6:05:36 PM PST by rmmcdaniell
HELENA – Former Republican state lawmaker and one-time Senate candidate Jack McDonald is joining the race for the GOP nomination to run against incumbent Sen. Max Baucus.
McDonald, 73, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate six years ago, said Tuesday he is entering the race because he believes the two other announced Republican candidates are not talking enough about conservative moral issues.
“They’re both talking economic and jobs – the same thing that Baucus is saying,” McDonald said. “You can’t beat him with that pitch. That’s not the issue, in my book.”
McDonald, a self-described born-again Christian, said he believes Republicans need to focus on getting more conservative members appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This campaign is against the liberal U.S. Supreme Court and Max Baucus, one of the liberal senators that keep it that way,” he said.
McDonald, of Helena, said he plans to file with the secretary of state’s office Thursday, the last day to do so.
Republicans already in the race are Bozeman businessman Brad Johnson and state Sen. Mike Taylor of Proctor. Taylor was expected to officially file Wednesday. Johnson filed in January.
McDonald’s entry into the race makes it a three-way Republican primary for the right to challenge Baucus this fall. Baucus, 60, is running for re-election to a fifth consecutive term in the Senate.
Also running is Green Party candidate Bob Kelleher, a Butte lawyer, and Libertarian Stan Jones, a Bozeman business consultant.
McDonald served as a Democratic state representative and senator from Cascade County from 1965-1974, and then changed parties.
Since then, he has run unsuccessfully for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, governor, Public Service Commission and state Senate.
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