Democrat Steve Bullock didn’t know for certain he’d won the hard-fought race for attorney general until around 1 a.m. Wednesday when his Republican challenger, Tim Fox, called to concede the contest.

By then, Bullock lead by some 20,000 votes and it was obvious Fox could not recover.

The Associated Press called the race later Wednesday morning with Bullock winning 52 to 48 percent.

The race was one of the most expensive, visible and bitter contests of the 2008 election season. As such, how Bullock won and where may offer clues into Montana’s political landscape.

Early on, Fox defined the race on his signature issues: cyber sex predators and gun rights. The Montana Republican Party later identified the race as a priority and spent more than $388,000 on television ads attacking Bullock.

Bullock pushed his own issues: cracking down on prescription drug abuse, ensuring recreational access to state waters and public lands and child safety.

Bullock said Wednesday he didn’t want to run a nasty campaign and didn’t run any pure attack ads in the race. Late in the campaign, the Montana Democratic Party launched its own attack on Fox, which the party later had to change after television stations refused to air it over concerns of its accuracy.

Asked if his victory may have been a repudiation of the Fox and GOP campaign tactics, Bullock said he’d let the “political scientists chew on that one.”

“I’m very proud of the campaign that we ran and my family is proud of it, too,” he said. “I’m happy I get to enter into (the attorney general’s office) feeling good about what we did to get there.

Kevin O’Brien, a spokesman for the Montana Democratic Party, which did launch an attack on Fox, said the Fox campaign failed to tell voters why they should vote Fox.

“The only things we saw from Tim (Fox) were scare tactics and wedge issues,” he said. “He tried to scare people into voting for him and we saw that Montana voters weren’t going to be swayed by those tactics.”

However, the Fox and GOP ad strategy did seem to erode Bullock’s support. A poll conducted in mid-October by Montana State University-Billings gave Bullock an 8 point lead over Fox. The Bullock attack ads were in full swing by then.

By Election Day, that lead had shrunk by half.

Neither Fox nor Chuck Denowh, his campaign manager returned telephone calls seeking comment for this story.

Erik Iverson, chairman of the Montana Republican Party, said Wednesday that Bullock, and all Democratic statewide candidates, were helped by the aggressive early voting campaign of President-elect Barack Obama. The Obama campaign targeted Montana as a potential swing state. While Montana ultimately went with Republican Sen. John McCain in the presidential race, the early voting returns favored heavily toward Democrats, Iverson said, and the GOP candidates never recovered.

“A lot of folks just voted a straight (Democratic) ticket,” Iverson said.

Bullock won big in predictable Democratic strongholds like Missoula, Butte-Silver Bow and Lewis and Clark counties. He also carried most counties with a high American Indian population, including Big Horn, Roosevelt and Glacier counties.

Fox carried most of the state’s rural counties, along with the GOP strongholds of Gallatin and Flathead counties.

But Bullock won Yellowstone County, Montana’s most populous county and ground long considered safe Republican territory. Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester lost Yellowstone two years ago but kept it close, and many pundits believed his thin, statewide win can be credited to narrowing the gap there, although not winning the county outright.

This time, O’Brien said, four Democrats claimed the county in victorious statewide races. Only Democratic Secretary of State-elect Linda McCulloch did not win Yellowstone.

O’Brien said that may signal that Yellowstone County and Billings is becoming more Democratic.

“We think the results speak for themselves,” he said. “Yellowstone County is clearly becoming more Democratic and, as a result, Democrats are winning more statewide offices.”

Bullock also took a few other GOP-leaning counties, including Park and Pondera counties and gave Fox a tight race in several others, including Carbon, Choteau and Jefferson counties.

Iverson said the party was not surprised Bullock won Yellowstone County and said that Fox “underperformed” in some counties where campaign leaders were hoping for more votes. But Iverson indicated there were no hard feelings.

“I was disappointed to see Tim didn’t make it,” he said. “But Steve Bullock is a good candidate and a good guy. I think it was a good, hard-fought race and Montanans can be proud of how the whole thing shook out. Both were great candidates. That’s why you have an election.”

Bullock said he worked hard in Yellowstone County, but added that he worked hard everywhere and was “humbled” by the results.

Before the election, some had speculated that the winner of the attorney general’s race, regardless of who, would be in a good spot to run for governor in 2012, when Schweitzer’s second term expires and he is forbidden by term limits from running again.

But Iverson said the Republican wins at the legislative level Tuesday night may reshape that thinking. The Legislature is where future leaders are often made, he said. The Republicans, with a clear majority in the state Senate and an apparent tie in the House of Representatives, are now in a position of real power, despite losing every statewide race except Congressman Denny Rehberg’s.

“Both parties have some opportunities for 2012,” he said.

Bullock said Wednesday he is not looking down the road that far. He said he was happy with his win and taking a few days to catch his breath, spend time with his family and go deer hunting this weekend.

“The most important part of this isn’t winning an election, it’s serving in the office,” he said. “I’m looking forward to that next

chapter.”