For Beard and Fitzpatrick, the record speaks for itself

By Kevin Hart

Published in the Anaconda Leader

February 6, 2026

Dear Editor:

On January 16th, Senator Becky Beard from Powell County published an editorial in the Anaconda Leader entitled “A Detour Away from Legitimate Governance”. It was largely political insider nonsense that wouldn’t make much sense to the average citizen.

In the editorial Beard took a swipe at Rep. Llew Jones, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee who is very intelligent when it comes to state finance. Beard also criticized several other legislators without naming them for being Jones “waterboys” implying that those who work with Jones are simple followers. One of those alleged “waterboys” is Rep. John Fitzpatrick.

Let’s compare the performance of Fitzpatrick and Beard. Fitzpatrick passed 19 bills; Beard three. Fitzpatrick’s success rate was 73%; Beard’s was 21%. Fitzpatrick passed HB 5 and HB 833 providing funding to rebuild the Prison and construct a new woman’s prison both of which are grossly overcrowded and struggling to protect Montana from anti-social individuals. In contrast, Beard’s two biggest legislative victories were SB 101, which revised laws related to squatting and SB 309, which eliminated the Scenic-Historic Byway Advisory Council.

Fitzpatrick supported HB 2, the state budget which keeps the Prison, Warm Springs, and highway workers & snowplow drivers working. Fitzpatrick also amended HB 2 with funding to add 26 additional, desperately needed hospital beds, at Warm Springs. Beard voted against the bill.

Fitzpatrick sponsored and passed HB 13; the state pay plan looking after the welfare of over 1,000 state employees who work in the Deer Lodge Valley while Beard voted no. The State of Montana is the single largest employer in the area, 10 times larger than Sun Mountain Lumber.

Fitzpatrick supported property tax relief benefiting over 90% of the homeowners in Southwestern Montana; Beard allied herself with the Flathead and Big Sky residents and voted against the people of her district.

Taken together, one of these legislators lowered our taxes, created jobs, increased pay for State employees including those in SW MT at the Montana State Hospital and Montana State Prison, Montana Probation & Parole, MT Public Health & Human Services and Dept. of Transportation, and supported long overdue improvement in the infrastructure of those institutions that will improve the working conditions for those employees. The other did not.

Kevin Hart

Anaconda

13 years as Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commissioner