Bozeman attorney seeks to upset sitting attorney general

Ask Bozeman attorney Ben Alke what prompted him to launch his long-shot campaign to unseat Attorney General Austin Knudsen and he is quick to rattle off stories of what he sees as partisan overreaching by Knudsen.

Back in 2021, for example, Knudsen sent Montana Highway Patrol officers to question hospital officials about their unwillingness to prescribe Ivermectin to a Covid patient. The hospital later complained it amounted to harassment, but the Department of Justice said it had done so at the request of concerned family members.

"A highway patrolman shouldn't have been there in the first place. If there was a legitimate need for a law enforcement officer to go investigate an issue at the hospital, it would have been the [Helena] police because you're in the city limits." Alke, a Democrat, said.

Stories like that helped inspire Alke to file against Knudsen and while the attorney general has his critics, most surveys put him comfortably ahead and with much more money than his lesser-known opponent.

Knudsen, who declined multiple requests for an interview, has said he stands by the work he has overseen as the top law enforcement officer in the state.

"I like what I'm doing in the attorney general's office," Knudsen told MTN News when he announced his intention to run last November. "We've done some really exciting things –we're pushing back really hard on fentanyl, on methamphetamine – and we're making good headway. And I want to keep moving in that direction."

But what Knudsen says is exciting, Alke argues is often more akin to using his office for partisan fights. Alke said in an interview he sees himself as being more of a centrist rather than a Democrat.

"It's your job to uphold the rights of the Montana Constitution and to uphold the law. You cannot allow for other criteria to affect your decision making," Alke said. "You don't do the job differently, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat."

Political observers say that is the kind of message that has worked in the past in Montana but may be a electoral relic.

"He really has no other choice but to run on that issue of trying to be non-ideological, trying to do what's best for the state. And it's worked for Democratic candidates in the past. It's a little harder to work now. I just think that the number of true ticket splitters has shrunk. And it makes it harder to move people away from the Republican line, especially when you're not that well known," said Jeremy Johnson, a political analyst and political science professor at Carroll College.

Republicans have held the office since 2013, but Alke argues that Knudsen has injected politics into the office in a new way.

"You cannot allow for other criteria to affect your decision making and several of the things he's done are not appropriate for any lawyer to do, much less the attorney general" Alke said.

But Knudsen has publicly countered that his work is in the interest of the state, even when it lands the state in court. For example, his office drafted and Knudsen claims credit for helping get passed and signed by the governor a law banning TikTok in Montana, making it the first state to do so.

That ban is in federal court now, but when Congress passed a law pushing TikTok to be sold by a Chinese-owned firm or face a possible ban, Knudsen hailed it, saying, "The dangerous application is a spy tool for the Chinese Communist Party that poses a serious threat to our national security and puts the privacy of Americans at risk."

Knudsen hails from the northeast part of the state, having served eight years as a legislator from Culbertson and two years as Roosevelt County Attorney before being elected attorney general in 2020 with 59% of the vote.

Alke grew up in Helena but headed to Notre Dame for college and Chicago for law school before returning and settling in Bozeman to work as a litigator. Despite the odds, Alke is hopeful his campaign has a chance of winning in a state he believes to still be more centrist.

"It's a purple state" Alke said.

But Johnson does not see that as much anymore, saying, "the state now, you know, we're not a purple state anymore. We're very much moving into the Republican column quickly."

Analysts say Alke faces another challenge as well – a U.S. Senate race that has dominated news coverage and advertising in the state.

Mounting a campaign against a fairly popular incumbent is never easy and according to Montana State University Professor Jessi Bennion, the attention and money flowing to the contentious and nationally significant U.S. Senate race makes Alke's job that much harder. Headed into the end of September he reported raising about $70,000 compared to Knuden's $300,000.

"[Alke] has that classic name ID problem -- like no one has probably heard his name, and it's very hard right now for him to break through the noise (from the Senate race)," she said. "But for Alke to be able to break through the noise break. He doesn't have enough money to do that."