Despite liberal and Republican endorsements, including Richland County Clerk of Court, Democrat Rex Renk loses

It looked like a match made in heaven: Democrat Rex Renk for Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court.

Renk had all the right endorsements:

• Liberal newspapers like the Missoulian
• All retired justices of the Montana Supreme Court
  (Patricia Cotter, William Leaphart, James Nelson, Terry Trieweiler, John Warner , James Regnier, Mike Wheat)
• A retired clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Numerous attorneys
• Numerous community leaders from both political parties and from all over the state
• A printing of all those endorsements in the Montana Lawyer, the official publication of the State Bar of Montana (Law requires all lawyers in Montana to be members, or else they cannot practice law here. The State Bar us unified under the Supreme Court of Montana.) (The item has been removed from the State Bar website, but can be recovered from caches and wayback machines.)
• In counties such as my own, Richland, the former Clerk of District Court, Democrat Arlene Riggs, and the current Clerk of District Court, Republican Janice Klempel

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Yet is was not to be.

​Statewide, Renk lost 52 to 48. In Richland County, despite the endorsement of Republican Janice Klempel, Renk lost 73 to 22. Not sure what it means when the endorsement says, "Help us keep the Clerk's Office independent and nonpartisan" when endorsing a partisan candidate. Whatever that is supposed to mean, it didn't go over.