Missoula News

Montana Ambassadors

Gov. Schweitzer, Fisher of Men

By Richard Martin, 3-07-06

Sounding like George McGovern in his "Come Home, America" mode, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer made an impassioned – well, an exuberant, anyway – plea last night to a small group of expat Montanans now in exile in way-too-civilized Denver to return to Big Sky Country, and to bring their checkbooks with them.

"I'm here to help you rediscover Montana, and to bring you home," Schweitzer told a meeting at the Denver Botanic Gardens. "We need you and we want you. And if we can't convince you to come home we hope you'll consider investing in Montana."

Wearing his trademark jean jacket with Indian petroglyph decoration on the back, bolo tie and cowboy boots, Schweitzer has a compelling case to make: Montana has enjoyed economic growth among the highest in the nation the last three years (Schweitzer can't quite take credit for that; he's been in office 14 months), and Schweitzer's renewable energy program could be a model for the rather amorphous national energy policy President Bush talked up in his State of the Union address.

Some of the expats in attendance weren't quite clear on the Governor's mission to Colorado, though.

"I got an email inviting me," said Doug Camrud, a former Montanan who works for an environmental engineering firm in Denver but has real estate holdings in the Treasure State. "I thought maybe it was going to be one of those deals where they offer you free Rockies tickets and then slap handcuffs on you when you show up."

I have to admit I was a bit unclear on the nature of the evening as well; I assumed it was going to be Schweitzer selling the glories of Montana to high rollers from Colorado. But no, this was a pitch at the Montana diaspora, which apparently is more widespread than one might guess.

"It's all part of our long-range effort to go around not just to Colorado but to a number of places and reach out to expat Montanans," Schweitzer's engaging, possibly brilliant economic-development guru Evan Barrett told me, "to really make them feel comfortable again with the state and confident in what we're doing. We're seeing a lot of people coming home, it's a big part of our economic growth. We're trying to create this network of people with ties to Montana."

After telling a longish story about his border collie, who Schweitzer said according to a recent newspaper poll enjoys higher approval ratings than the governor himself (punchline: "So this year I'm going to spend more time wagging my tail and less time wagging my tongue"), Schweitzer worked the room, radiating his mix of country charm and businessman's bluster. He told me a great Bill Clinton story that I can't share, and described his two-hour meeting earlier in the day with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper – who'd been rumored to appear at the Botanic Gardens event but didn't manage to make it.

Then Schweitzer and his team of Montana Ambassadors headed off to rope in another group of Montanans in exile, yearning for the Big Sky of their youth.

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