Two judges, one Supreme Court seat

Morning. It is a soft, cloudy start that should burn off into a sunny 66, so ease into the week. Up top, the two judges asking for your vote for a seat on Montana's Supreme Court, plus the stack of county races riding the same ballot. Then a private school building for the boom, a data-center fight headed our way, and, yes, a new place to empty your RV. Coffee is on.

Last Wednesday (Sept. 23) the Gallatin County Bar Association put both Montana Supreme Court candidates on a stage at MSU, and whoever wins in November takes an eight-year seat on the seven-member court, replacing retiring Justice Beth Baker. Both contenders, Amy Eddy and Dan Wilson, are district judges out of Flathead County, and Eddy edged Wilson in June's primary by fewer than 8,000 votes.

The race is officially nonpartisan, and most of the night went to arguing over what that word is worth. Eddy, who has refused party contributions, told the room "we do not want our judges to be held captive by political parties." Wilson has taken Republican Party money and headlined a GOP event, while saying he turns down donations from attorneys because once a lawyer gives, "they might expect something in return." They split, too, on how open the court should be, with Wilson pushing for public oral arguments and Eddy warning against reducing a justice's reasoning to one reported conference.

The stakes are as local as it gets. The court has the final say in Montana on water rights, property disputes, and whether the laws the Legislature passes survive a challenge, the questions this valley argues about most. Registration closes Oct. 5, ballots go in the mail Oct. 9, and Election Day is Nov. 3. It is the race at the top of the ballot that most people skip.

Gallatin County has several contested local races this November, and one of them shapes the growth fights directly. Zach Brown (D) faces Daniel Hill (R) for the District 1 seat on the three-member board that votes on county zoning, subdivisions, and budgets. District 3 looked like a second contest, but Democrat Tracie Gibbons was ruled ineligible in March over a residency rule, and fellow Democrat Nate Powell-Palm had already dropped out, so Republican Colter Metcalf is the only name printed on the ballot. Sitting appointed commissioner Ryan Finn is running a write-in campaign to keep the seat he was appointed to.

The county attorney's race is contested too, Audrey Cromwell (D) against Jordan Salo (R), and so are treasurer, Stephen Ball (D) against Maureen Horton (R), and clerk and recorder, Eric Semerad (D) against Roger Blank (R). Superintendent of schools was set to be a two-way race, but Republican Deanna Campbell was pulled from the ballot for lacking a required certificate, leaving Democrat John Nielson unopposed in print. Sheriff Dan Springer is also running unopposed. Same deadlines as above, so October is your reading month.

• Petra Academy, the private classical school on Bozeman's south side, is breaking ground on a $12.5 million, 20,500-square-foot expansion after enrollment climbed to about 250 and left teachers holding class in the library. The addition brings nine classrooms plus science, computer, and art rooms, with a lead gift from the Gianforte Family Foundation and construction starting within a couple of weeks.

• Montana's data center rush is running into its own rules. Yellowstone County commissioners asked the Legislature to clarify the 2025 Right to Compute Act after a proposed 5,000-acre server farm near Broadview drew heavy local pushback, arguing the law muddies whether counties can still zone and permit facilities that guzzle power and water. Lawmakers do not reconvene until January 2027, so treat it as a preview of a fight headed anywhere the grid stretches.

• Outgoing Rep. Ryan Zinke introduced a bill that would designate 132,000 acres of new Montana wilderness, mostly in the western part of the state around the Bob Marshall complex and the Blackfoot headwaters, alongside land set aside for restoration and motorized recreation. It does not touch the Gallatin Range, and with few days left in his term its odds are long, but it sets a marker for the next Congress.

• The Gallatin County Fairgrounds now has an RV dump station and the county's first food-truck grease drop, a $180,000 pair of upgrades that run $10 a use and exist so the stuff clogging our sewers stops ending up in them. Not glamorous, but neither is a blocked main under Main Street.

Monday opens cloudy before the sun takes over, high near 66, then it dries out and warms up, sunny and 71 Tuesday, 68 Wednesday. A soft landing after the weekend. Keep a layer handy for the drive in.

The Museum of the Rockies screens Home From School: The Children of Carlisle, a documentary on the Native boarding-school era and one family's search for answers, 4:30 p.m. and free.

Tuesday (Sept. 29): The Bozeman Poetry Collective hosts a Trans Poetry Showcase at Country Bookshelf, 6 p.m., free and open to all.

Tuesday (Sept. 29): Indie-rock road warriors Deer Tick play The ELM at 7 p.m., tickets $41 to $59, the week's splurge.

Wednesday (Sept. 30): MSU's fall career fair fills the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., so expect a few thousand students in interview clothes and a full lot off Kagy.

Wednesday (Sept. 30): Wildrye Distilling runs a Cocktails for a Cause night, 6 to 8 p.m., with 15% of sales going to a local classrooms nonprofit.

The agency runs a hiring event at the Bozeman Public Library on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., walking applicants through the screening-officer process for the airport as Gallatin Field keeps growing. Bring an ID and some patience. If you have ever wanted to be the person asking your neighbors to take off their shoes, here is your shot.