Betty Montgomery

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Betty D. Montgomery (born April 3, 1948 in Johnstown , Pennsylvania ) is an American lawyer and politician with the Republican Party . She was from 1995 to 2003 Attorney General of Ohio and 2003-2007 Auditor of State of Ohio.

Early years

Betty D. Montgomery and her twin sister were born in Cambria County, Pennsylvania in 1948 but grew up in Fremont, Ohio. She graduated from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Arts in 1970 . After that she worked as an assistant teacher and waitress for a year and a half. During this time she decided to pursue a law degree. Montgomery worked during the day and studied law at night. She was looking for a job as a trainee lawyer. At that time, however, a woman could only work as a trainee lawyer for a female judge on the Lucas County 's Court of Common Pleas . There was a female judge there, but no vacancy on their staff. Montgomery was polite and persistent. She made regular phone calls to the court to check if anything had changed. When a judge decided to convert the Criminal Clerk job to a secretarial position, Betty Montgomery applied. When asked if she could type, she replied in the affirmative and accepted the position, which was converted back into a trainee position shortly afterwards. During her three-year employment with the judge, she realized that she wanted to work as a criminal defense lawyer. In 1976 she received her Juris Doctor from the University of Toledo College of Law .

Public service

Her first political campaigning took place on behalf of Charles Kurfess, who served two terms as speaker in the Ohio House of Representatives and challenged incumbent Governor Jim Rhodes in the 1978 Republican primary. Kurfess ran for governor of Ohio with a woman as his running mate . His progressiveness in this regard in turn spurred Montgomery to apply for public office. While campaigning for Kurfess, she met John Cheetwood, the Wood County District Attorney . In the same polite, persistent manner that she tried to secure the trainee position, she periodically checked the Wood County Attorney's office to see if there was any vacancy. It emerged that Cheetwood's law firm partner was serving part-time as a youth attorney. The workload turned out to be too much for him at some point. When Montgomery called one day, the partner had previously informed Cheetwood that he was leaving.

Montgomery got a job as assistant prosecutor. She became the only female prosecutor in Wood County on a full-time basis. It turned out to be a great stroke of luck for them to work with the police, social services and judges to get to know the community. In 1978, she accepted the position of Perrysburg, Ohio District Attorney with a $ 3,000 raise . The position was designed to be part-time, but it worked on a full-time basis. Montgomery believed that it would have been wrong to pursue law enforcement part-time with so many working full-time to bring cases to her. She practiced this job for a year and a half.

On the Friday before Tuesday, the 1980 election deadline, John Cheetwood decided to run again for the Wood County Attorney's office. As a result of the short time, the party was unable to nominate a candidate. Party leader Chuck Kurfess called Montgomery Saturday morning asking them to run. She said yes, but other area codes were also recorded by Monday. There were concerns that a woman should hold this post. Until then, no woman had been elected to the state attorney in Ohio. Montgomery won the primary and subsequent elections. She became the only female prosecutor in the state. She was subsequently re-elected once and ran for another term when Senate President Paul Gillmor decided to step down from his Senate seat to run for Congress .

Ohio General Assembly

Three people ran for the vacant Gillmor seat in Ohio's 2nd Senate District. The district was split 50:50 between the Democrats and Republicans. Montgomery won the primary and subsequent elections. In the Senate, she then chaired the Criminal Justice Subcommittee and was Deputy Chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Montgomery got involved a lot. She was the only senator elected prosecutor. In this context, she mostly dealt with legal issues. Montgomery drafted Ohio's first living will law, which was finalized after 17 revisions. Her other achievements include the Brownfields Legislation, the Ohio Victims' Rights Law and the promotion of the draft law for the purpose of creation of Ohio's Lake Erie license plate.

Attorney General and Auditor of State

At the beginning of her political career, she was approached as to whether she would run for the post of Auditor of State of Ohio. She refused at the time. In 1994 there weren't many candidates ready to run against incumbent Attorney General Lee Fisher of the Democratic Party. At the urging of the Republican party leadership, particularly the future Speaker of the House Jo Ann Davidson, she agreed to run for the post. Montgomery won the election, becoming the first female Attorney General and the first Republican Attorney General in 24 years.

As Attorney General, she managed a staff of over 1,400 people. Montgomery was a supporter of victims' rights and campaigned for increased resources from local law enforcement agencies. It introduced innovations regarding the securing of evidence (CSI). These included searchable automatic fingerprint systems, a government DNA database, and a ballistics database. Montgomery built three new crime labs in the state. She actively supported efforts to protect Ohio's consumers from fraudulent businesses. The agency set ambitious goals and exceeded them. In seven out of eight years, the agency won the award for the best mandate recorded by the United States Supreme Court . The authority was perceived as the most important consumer protector in the country. She also worked with political leaders to divide millions of dollars from the Tobacco Settlement Fund, which was the result of a lawsuit filed against tobacco companies, to build schools and provide smoking cessation and education. Another initiative for the agency was a pro bono project, where lawyers on the staff used some of their time offsetting to assist older people across the state with simple legal matters. The project won an award from the American Bar Association. Montgomery won a 1998 re-election victory. She got more votes than any other candidate for office on the ballot.

In 2001, she was unable to run for a further term as Attorney General because of the two-term limitation. At that time, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett approached her to run for Auditor of State. Montgomery won the election and again got the most votes. Good results followed her engagement as Auditor of State.

In 2006 she ran for the Republican nomination for governor of Ohio, but lost the primary. In the same year she ran again for the office of Attorney General, but suffered a defeat to the Democrat Marc Dann in a narrow election.

Community service

During her time as a prosecutor, she was a member of the League of Women Voters. She found that many of the League's concerns coincided with her work. Thereupon she limited her engagement in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

Montgomery is an Of Counsel at MacMurray, Petersen & Shuster LLP in New Albany, Ohio. She sits on the board of trustees of Bowling Green State University and advised the governor's office on the opiate problem in the state. She also sits on the State Central Committee of the Republican Party of Ohio.

Montgomery works for the Capitol Square Foundation and the Ohio Women's Bar Association. In 2014 she was elected Chair of the Ohio Board of Prevent Blindness . She also chairs The Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute, which seeks to increase the number of Republican women in public, community service and party leadership.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Betty Montgomery on the MacMurray, Peterson & Shuster LLP website

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Montgomery, Betty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Montgomery, Betty D.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and politician (Republican Party)
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Johnstown , Pennsylvania