Tester rallies Democrats at Lewistown

By Mike Dennison of The Standard State Bureau - 08/07/2006

Jon Tester

LEWISTOWN — After weeks of hearing Republicans savage him as a liberal bent on taxing and spending, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Tester said Saturday he’s not deterred from his original campaign strategy.

“I’m going to be talking about what I want to do for the people of this state, and this country,” he said in an interview at the state Democratic Party Platform Convention in Lewistown. “We’re going to run a positive campaign.

“Let’s talk about solutions to problems we have, in health care, in energy, in fiscal responsibility.” Yet Tester, a Big Sandy farmer and reigning president of the state Senate, showed Saturday he’s not shy about delivering some punches of his own, in what’s certain to be one of the most bare-knuckle campaigns in Montana history.

In a luncheon speech to the party faithful, Tester noted that incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., received the most campaign money of anyone from “convicted felon” and lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates.

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Tester said, ripping Burns for taking huge sums of money from oil, drug and other industry sources. “He’s taken their money and he’s sold us out.

“But I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. He’s only being true to his trade as an auctioneer: You always sell to the highest bidder.” Welcome to the Montana 2006 Senate race, where the volume has been cranked to “loud” since last fall, largely because Democrats think Burns is ripe for defeat.

Within hours of Tester’s upset victory in the June primary election, Burns and Republicans have been hammering away, calling Tester a darling of the Eastern “liberal” establishment who wants only to increase government spending and raise taxes.

Tester shakes his head when asked about the advertising barrage, and promises that he’ll be countering soon.

“It says a lot about where they’re at in their campaign,” he said. “They’re using the old ‘liberal’ thing because that’s the only thing they can do. The record doesn’t show that.

“Conrad Burns has been the guy who’s doubled the national debt the last five years. That’s raising taxes on our children. This is not a guy who can talk about being fiscally responsible. Senator Burns knows his record representing regular Montanans is a loser.” “I’ve got to get around the state as much as possible and let people know who I am as on a personal basis,” he said. “We’re not going to give up anything.” Tester said Montanans face an increasingly uncertain future, with worries about health care costs, energy prices, education and making a living. They want to talk about those issues, and he said he’s ready to do it.