Friday, July 31, 2009

OP ED: Tester isn’t Matching What Burns Delivered for Montana

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Tester isn’t Matching What Burns Delivered for Montana
By Matt Mackowiak
Great Falls Tribune
Friday, July 17, 2009

By only 3,562 votes state Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., was elected to serve in the U.S. Senate instead of sitting Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.

In that campaign, Tester raised ethical questions about Burns in the Jack Abramoff investigation and questioned Burns’ Senate seniority.

But after three years, the result of sending Tester to Washington is that Montanans made a costly mistake.

Burns highlighted his years of “delivering for Montana,” citing the $2.2 billion in federal funding that he had secured over 18 years. After earning a seat on the Appropriations Committee in 1994, he rose to become the chairman the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, giving him enormous power to direct federal funding to Montana projects.

With Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., as the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., a member of the House’s Appropriations Committee, the state’s delegation could effectively authorize projects and appropriate federal funding on a massive scale.

To measure their success, the Northeast-Midwest Institute reported that Montana had the 11th highest rate of return of tax dollars (143 percent) for fiscal year 2005 with more than $8.35 billion, the 16th best state per capita and more than Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, and California. Two years later, without Burns, Montana slipped to 31st in the same category.

Tester undercut the value of his seniority by securing a unique promise.

Two weeks before Election Day, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would “give Tester a coveted seat on the Appropriations Committee” as soon as possible, according to the Helena Independent Record. Tester was the only candidate to receive such a promise in 2006.

But all 13 Democrats were expected to return to the committee and freshman senators are never appointed to Appropriations. Additionally, Burns and Montana voters had no way of knowing whether the promise was real until it was too late.

More than two years later, Tester was named the panel’s most junior member. For two years of federal appropriations, Montana was without representation on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Now, Tester has 11 years less seniority than Burns would have had. In 2006 Tester said, “I don’t support earmarks, period.” Now he’s supporting earmarks, only at a greater disadvantage.

Apart from appropriations, Tester relentlessly attacked Burns for his association with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, insinuating that Burns was a criminal under federal investigation.

Tester ran campaign ads saying, “Conrad Burns, delivering for Jack Abramoff, not us.” Democratic spokesman Matt McKenna, who later served as communications director for Tester even cited concern about Burns “worrying about whether he’s going to jail over his friendship with Jack Abramoff.”

There was only one problem.

Conrad could never prove that he wasn’t under investigation. To this day the FBI has never interviewed him or requested documents. But the whisper campaign undercut the integrity that Conrad felt he had displayed throughout his life, enlisting in the U.S. Marines Corps, as Yellowstone County Commissioner, and as a three-term U.S. senator.

Justice delayed is justice denied. On Jan. 3, 2008, almost 26 months after the election, Burns was finally notified that he was not under investigation.
So the two most effective arguments that Tester made to narrowly win proved to be completely false at worst or highly questionable at best. Conrad still had every inch of his integrity. And the hollow promise of a seat on Appropriations Committee was eventually honored, but at what cost to Montana?

The entire state of Montana should have buyer’s remorse in choosing Jon Tester over Conrad Burns.

A slim majority of Montana voters got drunk on political rhetoric and the entire state woke up with a hangover.

Matt Mackowiak is the founder of Potomac Strategy Group in Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas, and was press secretary to former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns from 2005 to 2007.