Ms. Martz was noted for turning a state deficit into a surplus while reducing taxes, but her one term was also marked by scandal and gaffes.
Judy Martz, the only woman to serve as governor of Montana, whose fiscal success running the state was overshadowed by scandal and gaffes, died on Monday in Butte. She was 74.
Her death was announced by the attorney general of Montana, Tim Fox, a family friend. Ms. Martz announced in 2014 that she had pancreatic cancer.
A Republican, Ms. Martz was governor from 2001 to 2005. She was noted for turning a state deficit into a surplus while reducing taxes and increasing funding for education.
But her term was besieged by missteps, and her popularity dropped to 20 percent at its low point.
Ms. Martz entered politics in 1996 as Gov. Marc Racicot’s running mate and, with their victory, became the state’s first female lieutenant governor. Because of term limits, Mr. Racicot did not seek a third term. Ms. Martz ran for governor in 2000 and won.
Early on, in 2001, her tenure was marred after her chief policy adviser, Shane Hedges, was involved in a drunken-driving crash in which the S. U. V. he was driving went off a mountain road. Montana’s House majority leader, a passenger in the vehicle, was killed. Ms. Martz was ridiculed for washing her aide’s clothes shortly after the crash, an act that she said was a motherly reaction.
She was also criticized for comments suggesting that she did not mind being referred to as a “lap dog” of industry. And her administration came under fire after news reports revealed that some of her staff used state phones to make political fund-raising calls. She later announced that she would not run for re-election.
In the years since she left the governor’s office, Ms. Martz routinely addressed Christian organizations throughout the country and was part of a network that prays at locations across Montana.
Ms. Martz and her husband, Harry, raised two children, Justin and Stacey. She later had grandchildren. There was no immediate word on survivors.
Judith Helen Morstein was born on July 28,1943, in Big Timber, in southern Montana, about 60 miles east of Bozeman. Her parents owned a ranch. She graduated from high school in Butte in 1961, was named Miss Rodeo Montana and attended Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University Billings).
She was also a member of the United States Olympic Speed Skating Team at the 1964 Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria.
Ms. Martz was a field representative for Senator Conrad Burns from 1989 to 1995. She also owned and operated a commercial solid-waste business with her husband.
