Montana Governor, Leno Compare Their State Assets

Gov. Marc Racicot was playing straight man to “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno Tuesday night in a bid to rebut Montana’s annoying new image as a refuge for criminals and kooks.

Racicot was loose and wisecracking while recording a two-to three-minute comedy segment with Leno Tuesday evening from the governor’s office.

He followed cue cards that set up responses from Leno in the “Tonight Show” studio.

“Every state has its positives and negatives, governor,” Leno said in the working script at rehearsal Tuesday afternoon. “And to prove that, I thought you and I would compare the state of California with Montana.”

Racicot then made a series of comments about Montana, and Leno responded with comparisons to California.

When Racicot explained, for instance, that Montana is the land of Big Sky, Leno said California is the land of brown sky.

“Montana has 8 million visitors every year,” Racicot said.

“And California has 8 million illegal immigrants,” Leno replied in the script.

Racicot’s communications director, Andrew Malcolm, said Racicot’s easy-going good humor and intelligent demeanor would be good advertising to offset national images of barricaded freemen at Jordan and the hermit cabin of the Unabomber suspect near Lincoln.