Republicans always target Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, and even if they haven’t always recruited a first-tier challenger into the race, the GOP nominee usually runs a respectable race.
After At-Large GOP Rep. Denny Rehberg, who ran against Baucus in 1996 and took 45 percent of the vote, and former Gov. Marc Racicot turned down entreaties to run, Republicans went looking for that candidate who could run a respectable race. They appeared to settle on state Rep. Michael Lange, but a number of other candidates filed, including engineers Kirk Bushman and Anton Pearson, accountant Patty Lovaas, truck driver Shay Garnett, and attorney and perennial candidate Bob Kelleher.
None of the GOP candidates raised much money. According to reports filed with the FEC just before the June 3 primary, Bushman had raised $47,000 for the cycle, followed by Lange with $12,660 and Pearson with $6,270. Garnett, who ran into some legal trouble during the campaign, Lovaas and Kelleher hadn’t even broken the $5,000 threshold required to file a report.
Given that none of these candidates was well known, the outcome of the
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