James Rice (Montana)

This is the page for the justice of the Montana Supreme Court. If you are looking for the municipal court judge from Tennessee, please see: Jim Rice (Tennessee).

James A. Rice (also known as Jim) is a judge of the Montana Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2001. His current term ends on December 31, 2022.

Rice is running for re-election for judge of the Montana Supreme Court. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 8, 2022. He advanced from the primary on June 7, 2022.

Rice first became a member of the Montana Supreme Court through a gubernatorial appointment. He was first appointed to the court in 2001 by Gov. Judy Martz (R).^[1] To read more about judicial selection in Montana, click here.

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.^[2] Rice received a confidence score of Strong Republican.^[3] Click here to read more about this study.

Before joining the court, he served three terms in the Montana House of Representatives.

Biography[edit]

Rice received a B.A. in political science from Montana State University in 1979 and his J.D. from the University of Montana School of Law in 1982.^[4] Before becoming a judge, Rice worked as a public defender in Lewis and Clark County and was a partner in the firm of Jackson & Rice.^[5]

Elections[edit]

2022[edit]

General election

General election for Montana Supreme Court

Incumbent James A. Rice and Bill D'Alton are running in the general election for Montana Supreme Court on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate
		James A. Rice (Nonpartisan)
		Bill D'Alton (Nonpartisan)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Montana Supreme Court

Incumbent James A. Rice and Bill D'Alton advanced from the primary for Montana Supreme Court on June 7, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	James A. Rice (Nonpartisan)	76.2	187,878
✔	Bill D'Alton (Nonpartisan)	23.8	58,696

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Source	Total votes: 246,574
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2014[edit]

See also: Montana judicial elections, 2014

Rice ran for re-election to the Montana Supreme Court.
Primary: He was successful in the primary on June 3rd, 2014, receiving 76.2 percent of the vote. He competed against W. David Herbert.
General: He defeated W. David Herbert in the general election on November 4, 2014, receiving 78.2 percent of the vote.^[6]

2006[edit]

Rice was retained to the supreme court by voters in 2006, winning 84% of votes.^[7]

2002[edit]

He was retained to the supreme court by voters in 2002, winning 85% of votes.^[8]

Campaign themes[edit]

2022[edit]

Ballotpedia survey responses

James A. Rice has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey. Ballotpedia is seeking 100 percent participation so voters can learn more about all the candidates on their ballots.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

694 candidates completed the survey in 2021. This number represented 13.5% of all 5,138 candidates Ballotpedia covered in 2021. Out of the 694 candidates who completed Ballotpedia's candidate survey, 147 won their election. Candidates from 36 states completed the survey. Noteworthy respondents included Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Read the 2021 report for more information about that year's respondents.

4,745 candidates completed the survey in 2020. This number represented 16.4% of all 29,002 candidates Ballotpedia covered in 2020. Out of the 4,745 respondents, 743 won their election. Candidates from all 50 states completed the survey. Noteworthy respondents included U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, U.S. Representative Kat Cammack, and U.S. presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen. Read the 2020 report for more information about that year's respondents.

You can ask James A. Rice to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing jimriceforjustice@gmail.com.

Analysis[edit]

Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)[edit]

See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship and Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters

Last updated: June 15, 2020

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.

The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.^[9]

The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:

Strong Democrat
Mild Democrat
Indeterminate^[10]
Mild Republican
Strong Republican

This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.

James
Rice

Montana

Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican
Judicial Selection Method:
Elected
Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Held political office as a Republican
- Was a registered Republican before 2020

Partisan Profile

Details:

Rice donated $13,099 to Republican candidates. From 1989 through 1994 he was a Republican state representetive, in the Montana House of Representetives. He was the majority whip in the 1993 session. He was a registered Republican prior to 2020. He was appointed to the court by Gov. Judy Martz (R) in 2001 when Montana was a Republican trifecta.

Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)[edit]

See also: Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores of state supreme court justices, 2012

In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.

Rice received a campaign finance score of 0.58, indicating a conservative ideological leaning. This was more conservative than the average score of -0.87 that justices received in Montana.

The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.^[11]

State supreme court judicial selection in Montana[edit]

See also: Judicial selection in Montana

The seven justices on the Montana Supreme Court are selected through nonpartisan elections to eight-year terms. When their terms expire, justices must run for re-election if they wish to remain on the court. If unopposed, a justice must stand for a yes-no retention election.^[12]^[13]

Qualifications[edit]

To serve on this court, a judge must be:

a U.S. citizen;
a state resident for at least two years; and
licensed to practice law in the state for at least five years.^[12]

Chief justice[edit]

The chief justice of the court is selected through a nonpartisan election to an eight-year term.^[12]

Vacancies[edit]

See also: How vacancies are filled in state supreme courts

In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor is responsible for appointing a new justice to the court. Once confirmed by the Montana state Senate, the justice will hold office until the next regular election. At that time, the appointed justice will be able to run for re-election or retention to complete the remainder of the unexpired term.^[13]

The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.