Party soft money and interest group issue advocacy activity was less important in the 2002 contests for Montana's Senate and At-Large House seats; a very different scenario than the one acted out in 2000. These races might have been competitive, but a failure to recruit viable challengers led to little campaign activity by outside groups and victories for both incumbents.

In the 2002 Senate race, the Democratic Party made significant expenditures for incumbent Max Baucus in an effort to take out his opponent, Mike Taylor, early, while the Republican Party spent little on Taylor. In an ad widely known as “Boogie Nights,” Democrats alleged that Taylor had been involved in a student loan scandal. Taylor claimed that the ad insinuated that he was gay and dropped out of the race. He reentered 12 days later but still lost the election 63% to 32%. In the 2002 U.S. House race, Republican Dennis Rehberg defeated Democrat Steve Kelly by 22 percentage points.