This Friday, the United States Marshal’s Service will lose a valuable employee. U.S. Marshal Dwight MacKay announced his retirement last week.

The Billings Gazette Editorial Board bid a “fond farewell” to Marshal MacKay today saying that although his appointment by President George W. Bush “was a partisan political appointment, MacKay took a decidedly nonpartisan approach. The well-wishers who gathered for his retirement announcement last week spanned the political spectrum.”

The Gazette Editorial Board went on to add, “Many Montanans, including some Democrats, had hoped that MacKay would be reappointed by President Barack Obama. MacKay had expressed interest in reappointment.”

U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester (both Democrats) missed a great opportunity to be nonpartisan and recommend MacKay to President Obama. Baucus’ previous recommendation for U.S. Marshal during the Clinton years was characterized by the Gazette this way:

The office was at a low point when MacKay took over in 2002. His predecessor, Bill Strizich of Great Falls, had disgraced the post by being sentenced to a year in federal prison for lying to agents about distributing cocaine in 1997 while in office.

In today’s highly volatile political world we need more people using the “nonpartisan” approach that MacKay did as Montana’s United States Marshal, and we could sure use more people like MacKay serving in elective office.

Here’s hoping he’ll throw his hat into the ring and run for Governor or U.S. Senator. He would make a fine choice for either office.