Now that Rick Hill is the Republican nominee for Governor of Montana, it’s a good time to take a closer look at his record.  It isn’t good.

The Democratic party has already pointed out that Hill led the effort to create a new 4% sales tax. He supported the privatization of Social Security, voted against increasing the minimum wage, and backed special tax breaks for big corporations. As head of the workers compensation board, he set up the most expensive worker’s compensation system in the U.S.

Democrats aren’t the only people with concerns about Hill’s abysmal record.  Here’s how members of Hill’s own party explained why Hill would make a terrible Governor.

Corey Stapleton first pointed out in a campaign ad (which was later backed up by the Associated Press)  that Rick Hill not only made a king’s ransom renting office space to the Montana state government in the 1990s and 2000s, but that his wife Betti used her job in Governor Judy Martz’s office to steer business his way.  Thus did Rick and Betti Hill become very wealthy people. Stapleton also pointed out the sales tax Hill proposed.

Ken Miller raised concerns about how much time Rick Hill spends in California, saying “perhaps Congressman Hill should have spent more time enjoying what Montana has to offer,” instead.

 Neil Livingstone said Hill failed with Montana’s work comp system, “I think a lot of the problems that we have today we can attribute to Rick and his tenure there […] he really didn’t get his arms around the problem.  Today there are 19 people working in the State Fund that make more than the governor […] and they give each other big bonuses of several hundred thousand dollars a year”  

Bob Fanning expressed concerns at a GOP forum about Hill’s support in Congress for the de-regulation of banks and the management of the U.S. economy:

“Mr. Hill, during your tenure in the 106^th congress, I pointed out that there were four (4) sectional charges placed underneath the American economy that blew it up. Number one (1), The Community Reinvestment Act and the expansion of Fannie Mae between 1993-2001. Number two (2), the continued de-regulation of credit default swaps, which are the instruments that blew up the economy. Number three (3), the repeal of the Glass-Stegal Act, which ultimately turned our banks into securitization mills and blew up the economy. And, number four (4), the Commodity Modernization Act. With three million people out of their homes, and 14 million people out of their jobs, do you feel any reason that you should be held to account for our financial crisis because your votes were all yea [in favor of these measures]?”

Now that the primary is over Montanans will start to look deeper in to Rick Hill’s background.  Given what’s known already, its unlikely they’ll like what they see.