On April 6, 2005 (yes, 2005) Markos wrote about taking on Conrad Burns. He listed the candidates ending with :
Jon Tester of Big Sandy, an organic grain farmer who is president of the Montana Senate this session.... Of that crowd, Tester is the rockstar.
He concluded that post with this: "This will be one hot, nasty race. And we're going to win it." I remember writing a comment in that thread that Markos was dreaming if he thought we'd take Conrad Burns down. I had a lot of friends in Montana, and while all of them were pretty fed up with Conrad, they all thought that Montanans were sick of Burns, but liked the pork that he brought home far too much pork to throw him out. A couple of weeks later I ran into my old buddy Ed in Montana in the threads and asked him about it. Here's part of his response:
Montanan's love pork, and Conrad serves it up like no other legislator in Montana history. This will make him difficult, but not impossible to beat. Schweitzer came close in 2000, but Schweitzer is a remarkable politician. I'm not sure our demo challengers are as remarkable, yet.
Well, he might not exactly be a rock star, but Montanans found their remarkable politician in Jon Tester. What makes Tester so remarkable? That he is utterly unremarkable in a standard politician kind of way. It's that he is the real deal--he's authentic.
Jon Tester is the quintessential Montanan, from farming the same dryland farm as his father and grandfather, to the flat-top and the missing fingers on his left hand, to the fact that he spent the Thursday after the election picking up supplies for the farm in Great Falls. You only had to see him in his kitchen in Big Sandy on Meet the Press to see that Jon Tester is a regular Montanan. That was the kitchen of a farmer who netted about $20,000 in farm income last year, the kitchen of an extraordinary man who, up until now, has lived an ordinary life of hard work, of economic struggle, and of increasing frustration with a government that is ignoring the challenges the vast majority of us face.
The reaction of the people I met and talked to in Montana to Tester reflected this. And it drew a great contrast to Conrad Burns, oddly enough. I consistently heard a new complaint from Montanans about Burns: he's from Missouri, not really a Montanan after all. I'm sure there are plenty of Montanans who have always held that against him, but it was elevated to one of the issues of the campaign. And that made some of the Burns campaign's attempts to smear Tester fall on deaf ears. My favorite was the last ditch attempt at the end of the campaign to attack Tester on gun rights by saying that he hadn't held a hunting license in 15 years. The best part was Tester's response: "I have beef cattle and hogs on the farm. I don't need the meat." Then, patting his stomach, "I already get plenty of it, anyway."
Straightforward, practical, unapologetic. And to top it off, smart.
More after the fold.
A new kind of Democrat?
I thought this exchange from Tester's MTP appearance particularly demonstrates this about Tester:
MR. RUSSERT: ....Here’s the cover of The Weekly Standard magazine, Jon Tester, where you’re in front of a truck with a shovel and considerable girth, which doesn’t make you a bad guy, I know the feeling. Are you a new kind of Democrat? Are you different than some of the national Democrats the country’s heard from over the last decade?
SEN.-ELECT TESTER: Well, I don’t—you know, I don’t know. My, my focus really is on what I talked about, the middle class, and, and, and the people who have really built this country. I think Democrats have been focused on that in the past, but it really is a priority of, of mine. You know, as I look out my window here in Big Sandy, I see more farms than aren’t lived in than what are lived in. We really need to have some policies that, that, that move forward, that work for production agriculture. We’ve got to have some policies that work for the middle class. One of the reasons I am a Democrat is because I think the Democrats have focused on the middle class, and I hope they put more of a priority on it into the future, and, and it’s one of the things that I feel very, very strongly about. It’s, it’s where I come from.
MR. RUSSERT: You said when you walked into the Senate—in the Senate chamber for the first time, it was like walking into your barn. There was no other place in the world quite like it.
SEN.-ELECT TESTER: Well, it’s—I mean that from a very positive standpoint. The barn was built by my grandad nearly a hundred years ago and it’s a very, it’s a very special place for me, as was the Capitol, very, very impressive, and it’s a place where I hope to be able to do some really good work....
Jon Tester isn't really a new kind of Democrat, but he's the kind of Democrat that many of us, and a majority of Montana voters, can identify with, can respect, and can trust to represent them in Congress. As an individual, I predict Tester will redefine what being a representative means. In that sense, Tester's victory is a victory for middle-class Americans everywhere.
In a political sense, Tester's victory means a lot more for Democratic politics, for the grassroots, and for the netroots. It's an early success of one of the component's of Dean's people-powered 50-state strategy--the triumph of the people's choice. Jon Tester wasn't groomed for higher political office. He didn't set out in his career to become a Senator, he decided that something needed to be done to change the direction of this country and that he had to do it. He started by becoming a state legislator and quickly rose to the position of president of the senate, but felt he had to do more.
For the Democratic party, this is a powerful new archetype. In his demeanor, in his approach to politics, Tester is the common man, the simple citizen. As a politician, he projects these personal qualities into a message of common sense, the common good, and representation of the little guy. In that, Tester's political approach shows us how to recapture what Americans have always liked about the Democrats, that it's the party of the little guy. He's a unifying figure for us, from the center to the left. Without sacrificing any of the core values that make him a Democrat--he's pro-choice, pro-civil liberties, and believes in the essential ability of government to improve people's lives--Tester can appeal to white, middle/working class voter that has been duped by the Republicans into thinking that they represent their concerns better.
What's more, he negates the standard Republican attack on Democrats because he can't be attacked for not being a real American with real American values. Tester effectively negates the elitist, limousine-liberal label with which Republicans have managed to negatively brand Democrats. It's not as a result of any specific position he holds, but rather the totality of the image he presents. He's the farthest thing from a limousine liberal you can find. He speaks in short, straightforward sentences about the things the typical voters faces in daily life. He's the kind of Democrat who reminds people of what they used to like about the Democrats witout igniting any of the negatives that have been used so effectively by the GOP against us.
Jon Tester isn't necessarily a new kind of Democrat, he's the best of what Democrats have always been.
