Marc Racicot (/ˈrɑːskoʊ/; born July 24, 1948) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and former Republican politician who served as the 21st governor of Montana from 1993 until 2001.
[1] After leaving office, Racicot worked as a lobbyist for the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani.
His notable clients included Enron, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and the Recording Industry Association of America.
He was stationed in West Germany where he served as Chief Prosecutor for the largest U.S. military jurisdiction in Europe.
He convicted Don and Dan Nichols, who both abducted Kari Swenson, an Olympic athlete, and murdered a would-be rescuer.
[10] Racicot was the special prosecutor in the 1984 murder trial of Barry Beach, who was convicted of killing teenager Kim Nees near Poplar, Montana, in 1979, at age 17, and was sentenced to life without parole.
Beach's appeals were unsuccessful, with the Montana Supreme Court rejecting a bid to overturn his conviction by a 4–3 vote.
Beach's petitions for clemency to the state Board of Pardons and Parole were opposed by Racicot, but supported by other prominent Montanans, such as Jon Tester and Brian Schweitzer.
At a clemency hearing, Racicot acknowledged that law enforcement had created a "mess" by contaminating the crime scene, but testified that Beach's detailed confession was strong evidence of his guilt, and disputed the plausibility of alternate accounts of Nees' murder.
He defeated Democratic nominee Mike McGrath, the Lewis and Clark County Attorney, 52%-48%.
In 1992, incumbent Governor Stan Stephens declined to run due to health problems.
Racicot decided to run and easily won the Republican primary by defeating Andy Bennett 69%-31%.
[16] Reluctantly, his little known running mate, Judy Jacobson continued the drive but had little time to launch her own campaign.
This legislation was sought by the Montana Power Company, the major utility supplier in the state.
[20][21] In addition, Racicot was Bush's first choice for U.S. Attorney General, but he took himself off the list for personal reasons.
In the wake of the McCain-Feingold finance reform, the RNC raised a record-$250 million in soft money.
Racicot has criticized of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC (2010), saying it has led to "obscene" levels of fundraising from "third-party groups", and worsened American political discourse, alongside social media.
[8] During the 2016 election, he wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he said, "Trump has demonstrated neither [...] qualities of principled leadership, nor offered any substantive or serious conservative policy proposals consistent with historical Republican Party platform positions".
[8] In early April of 1996, Racicot gained national attention when he playfully sparred with host Jay Leno of The Tonight Show in a bid to rebut Montana's new image as a refuge for criminals and kooks.
Racicot was loose and wisecracking while recording a two-to-three-minute comedy segment with Leno from the governor's office.
Racicot then made a series of comments about Montana, and Leno responded with comparisons to California.