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Augare Bows Out of 2014 Election

By Beacon Staff

Having endured a firestorm of controversy, state senator and Blackfeet Tribal Business Council member Shannon Augare says he will not seek reelection to either position in 2014. Augare made the announcement in a letter on Jan. 6.

“After a decade of representing the people of Montana and the Blackfeet Nation, I will not be a candidate for reelection this year,” Augare wrote.

Augare was elected to the tribal council and Montana Senate in 2010. Before that he served in the Montana House of Representatives. Last year, Augare pleaded guilty in federal court to drunken driving, reckless driving and obstruction of a peace officer after fleeing a Glacier County deputy in May. Augare initially pleaded not guilty, arguing the federal government could not charge a tribal member. Later he pleaded guilty to tribal charges and tried to have the federal charges dropped. When that effort failed, he changed his plea to guilty.

Augare has also been at the center of a political impasse on the tribal council that has caused the Blackfeet government to shut down on multiple occasions since last fall.

Augare said those incidents had little to do with his decision not to run again.

“I am proud of the job I have done and the results delivered,” he wrote. “But none of us are irreplaceable. None of us are indispensable. Those who think otherwise are dangerous.”

In the letter, Augare outlined some of the successful projects he was involved with over the years, including the opening of a new grocery store, a hotel and a water line project on the Blackfeet Reservation. He also touted his involvement with a small business grants program and having voted to fund the largest land purchase in the history of the Blackfeet tribe.

Augare will remain on the tribal council through June. He did not say what he planned to do in the future, but in a statement to the Beacon by email he wrote that he was “looking forward to private life and managing my businesses.”