Brian Schweitzer
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Brian Schweitzer (born September 4, 1955) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Montana. Schweitzer is a Democrat and the current governor of Montana, serving since January 2005. Schweitzer is currently one of the most popular governors in the nation, with polls showing an approval rating of around 74 percent [link]. He is also the Recruitment Chair for the Democratic Governors Association for 2006-2007.
Schweitzer was born in Havre, Montana. He was the fourth of six children born to a German-Russian father, Adam, and an Irish mother, Kay. Schweitzer earned his Bachelor of Science degree in international agronomy from Colorado State University in 1978 and a Master of Science in soil science from Montana State University in 1980. Upon finishing school, he worked as an irrigation developer on projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, spending much of his time in Saudi Arabia before returning to Montana in 1986 to launch a ranching and irrigation business in Whitefish. Schweitzer married Nancy Hupp in 1981; they began a family after returning to Montana and have three children: Ben, Khai, and Katrina.
Bill Clinton appointed Schweitzer to the United States Department of Agriculture as a member of the Montana USDA Farm Service Agency committee, where he worked for seven years. While working for the USDA, he was appointed to the Montana Rural Development Board (1996), and the National Drought Task Force (1999).
In 2000, Schweitzer ran for U.S. Senate against the Republican incumbent Conrad Burns. In a close race, Schweitzer lost by the surprisingly small margin of 51 percent to 47 percent. When incumbent Governor Judy Martz announced she would not run for re-election in 2004, Schweitzer announced his candidacy. His running mate was John Bohlinger, a Republican state Senator. He won the general election by a margin of 50 percent to 46 percent over Montana Secretary of State Bob Brown.
In March 2005, Schweitzer sparked controversy by suggesting that Montana's National Guard troops be recalled from service in Iraq to assist firefighting during Montana's wildfire season. He has been also gaining national attention lately for his focus on converting Montana's vast coal reserves into fuel, which he has said is one way to wean America off of foreign oil. Schweitzer was interviewed for 60 Minutes (first aired on February 26, 2006) on his work in this field.
On May 3, 2006, Schweitzer posthumously pardoned forty people who had been convicted of sedition during World War I for making comments that were critical of the war. These were the first posthumous pardons in Montana history, but the convictions had become notorious in recent years because Montana's sedition law had been one of the broadest and harshest of its time: one man went to prison for calling food rationing "a joke," while others were targetted because they refused to physically kiss a U.S. flag or to buy Liberty Bonds. At a public ceremony attended by family members of the pardon recipients, Schweitzer said "[i]n times when our country is pushed to our limits, those are the times when it is most important to remember individual rights."
References
- ["World War I critics get pardons"], CNN.com, May 3, 2006.
- ["Pardons granted 88 Years After Crimes of Sedition"]
External links
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