Perennial candidate Bob Kelleher dies at 88

HELENA — Bob Kelleher — an attorney, perennial political candidate and delegate to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention — has died at age 88.

David Kelleher, of Kalispell, tells Lee Newspapers of Montana that his father died Sunday in Billings.

Kelleher, who many will remember for his bushy eyebrows, ran for office 16 times between 1964 and 2008, mostly as a Democrat. He won the six-way Republican primary nomination for U.S. Senate in 2008 but lost to Sen. Max Baucus in the general election. He also ran on the Green Party ticket and made a failed bid for president in 1976 in the New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Georgia primaries.

"I don't know if there's a person who's a known politician in Montana who's run under so many party labels for so many offices for so long a time," said Craig Wilson, a political science professor at Montana State University Billings.

In 1971, Kelleher was elected as one of the 100 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, where he fought unsuccessfully for Montana to switch to a one-house parliamentary form of government. Under that form of government, Montanans would elect legislators to one house and lawmakers from the majority party would form the government and serve as executive branch leaders.

Kelleher worked as an attorney in Butte and Billings and was practicing law up until the day he died, his son said.

David Kelleher said he thinks his dad ran for office so often because "he wanted to express himself. He was highly educated and a brilliant individual."

Kelleher received a law degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., spent a year studying at Harvard University law school and was a graduate of the U.S. Army War College. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a colonel in military intelligence.

Kelleher opposed abortion and discrimination against homosexuals and advocated for people's right to privacy. He fought for minorities, the poor and the disenfranchised.

"He was a very intelligent and passionate man," said Gov. Brian Schweitzer. "I will call him, in a good way, a professional political provocateur. When no one else would poke a tiger, Bob Kelleher would."

Kelleher had seven children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A rosary-celebration of life service is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at Dahl Funeral Chapel in Billings.