HELENA -- Former Republican Gov. Judy Martz teed off Saturday on her successor, Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, as a bully who rules by intimation but gets a free ride from the media.

Without ever mentioning Schweitzer by name, Martz attacked him on a number of fronts in the keynote speech to the 150 people attending Lewis and Clark County Republican Central Committee's Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner at the Great Northern Hotel.

"Quite frankly, this is an executive branch that is so confused it thinks you can run for office on the sound bites of bipartisanship and then govern using the most divisive, disturbing and destructive brand of partisan politics ever seen in the Capitol and then think no one will notice," Martz said.

She was referring to the fact that Schweitzer picked Republican state Sen. John Bohlinger as his running mate for lieutenant governor and won the 2004 governor's race on a theme of bipartisanship.

Reached Saturday night, Schweitzer's spokeswoman, Sarah Elliott, declined to comment on Martz's criticism of the governor.

Martz was elected governor in 2000 and did not seek re-election amid low job-approval ratings that were in the low 20 percent range. She has returned to Butte and serves on the boards of directors for several national business and nonprofit groups.

Martz urged Republican legislators to hold tight and fight hard for permanent property tax relief, not Schweitzer's one-time $400-per-household property tax rebate.

"It's time for this executive branch to wake up and join us in support of a sustainable and responsible budget that meets the needs of the people, but also includes real and permanent property tax relief, not just the one-time refund that does nothing in the long haul," she said.

Martz said a similar one-time program in 1995 by Republican Gov. Marc Racicot, with whom she ran as lieutenant governor in 1996, "didn't do anything."

Martz also criticized Schweitzer's proposed budget for spending so much of the projected $1 billion "hard-earned surplus" that will force future administrations and legislators to make painful cuts when the state's revenues fall again.

The former governor predicted that reporters covering the event would not print her critical comments. Martz said it's "shameful" and "a disgrace" that the media won't report what Schweitzer is really doing.

She said the press wrote stories criticizing her for taking fund-raising money from lobbyists, but won't tell how Schweitzer is using the governor's mansion for $500-a-person fund-raisers to "badger" the lobbyists he regularly criticizes to attend.

When she was governor, Martz drew criticism after stories reported that some of her governor's staff illegally used state telephones on state time to raise money for a California fund-raiser for her political action committee.

As soon as Schweitzer was elected, Martz said, he began calling boards of directors of trade associations and lobbying groups to demand that they fire their executive directors, most of whom were Republicans.

She accused Schweitzer of using state government and its hard-working employees "solely to serve as a public relations tool" to promote him for running for higher office.

"It is not about doing the right thing with this executive branch leader," she said. "It is all about him. He believes that the elected are more important than the electors. This branch believes that you can mask your personal insecurities by acting like a political bully.

"The executive branch believes that scoring political points is more important than forming sound policy. It believes politics by intimidation trumps leadership by inspiration."

Martz said she and the Republican-led 2003 Legislature made the tough choices when state revenues fell. They cut budgets and programs and cut taxes, which is what led to a then-record state surplus when she left office.

Yet Martz said she was criticized at the time, but called the budget cuts painful but necessary.

She poked fun at Schweitzer's usual attire of blue jeans, dress shirt and bolo tie.

"I really did think about wearing jeans and this ugliest of all bolo ties, but that's not our style and don't change the way we are," she said, holding up a bolo tie.

She referred to Schweitzer practice of bringing his border collie, Jag, into the Capitol, saying, "Some days, bringing a dog to the Capitol is animal cruelty."