Brown beats GOP field; will take on Schweitzer | Billings Gazette

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Brown beats GOP field; will take on Schweitzer

By CHARLES S. JOHNSON
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - Two Whitefish men, Democrat Brian Schweitzer and Republican Bob Brown, will battle in the fall general election campaign to be Montana's next governor after winning their party primaries on Tuesday.

Joining the two men on the Nov. 2 ballot are Green Party candidate Bob Kelleher and Liber-tarian Party candidate Stan Jones of Boze-man.

While Schweitzer rolled to an easy win over John Vincent in the two-way Democratic primary for governor, Bob Brown faced a tougher race but maintained a steady lead over Pat Davison throughout the night to win the four-way Republican race.

With 65 percent of the vote or 577 of the 875 precincts counted, Schweitzer had 48,047 or 73 percent of the vote, while Vincent, a Gallatin County commissioner, had 18,146 or 27 percent in an unofficial Associated Press vote tally. The AP declared Schweitzer the winner at 8:56 p.m., less than an hour after the polls closed.

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