It didnât take long for Doug White to decide the stateâs lawsuit against his business, a gas station, convenience store and casino on Highway 35 outside Bigfork, was a political hit job.
The owner of Your Lucky Mercantile was sued in October for noncompliance with Montanaâs mask mandate, along with four other Flathead County businesses. Between his outspoken Republican politics, a 36-foot yacht that âprobably has the largest Trump flag that you could have on itâ and what he said was careful adherence to federal COVID guidelines, he didnât think the lawsuits, announced by then-Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, were really about public health.