Big Sky Country Gets Smaller
Montana's Senate race gets ugly.
BY FRANK D. MIELE
Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
KALISPELL, Mont.--"Are you tired of business as usual in our state and federal government?" began a letter to the editor in the Daily Inter Lake last week. Joani Young was driven to despair by Montana's U.S. Senate race, which pits Conrad Burns, a three-term Republican incumbent from Billings, against Jon Tester, the Democratic president of the state Senate. Ms. Young's despondency probably speaks not only for a lot of Montanans, but for voters across the board on the condition of American politics.
The Burns-Tester race is indeed a sorry sight: A campaign run from Washington that has probably offended every decent Montanan with its advertising blitz, its finger-pointing, its name-calling--and, more significantly, with its cynicism, anger and disrespect. This, after all, is Big Sky Country, where there used to be room enough for ideas all across the political spectrum, and where a man used to be respected as much for what he didn't say as what he did. But Big Sky Country has been made smaller--and meaner--by this campaign.
A few weeks ago, for instance, the high-school auditorium in the town of Hamilton (pop. 4,500) was the scene of an embarrassing scrap. A debate between Messrs. Tester and Burns degenerated into an unruly shout-down in which an audience packed with Tester supporters heckled and cursed Mr. Burns, one even calling him a "psycho."
Of course, during this no-holds-barred campaign, Conrad Burns has been accused of all manner of foolishness and scandal. He may, in fact, be the only Republican member of Congress who considers the Mark Foley sex scandal a welcome diversion. Mr. Burns's alleged indiscretions don't drift toward the salacious, of course. Rather, his problem is that he's been in Washington for 18 years. Back in 1988, Mr. Burns ran as a conservative, just-plain-folks government outsider, commanding the field to such a degree that he helped create an updraft for other Montana Republicans. The 71-year-old still cusses and chews tobacco like the former Marine and live-auctioneer he was back then, but today his down-home lovable rascal act may be long on rascal and short on lovable.
Nationwide, Mr. Burns topped the list of all congressmen who took money from the disgraced Jack Abramoff, at nearly $150,000. But he's best known around these parts for taking money from Congress rather than from lobbyists. He is a proud participant in the "culture of pork" and loudly trumpets his accomplishments, along with Democratic fellow Sen. Max Baucus (five terms in Washington), in winning appropriations for a variety of water projects, highways, research grants, farm subsidies, etc. In Montana, we have come to measure our representation in Washington by dollar amounts.
Mr. Burns's mastery of that kind of practical politics seems to be the central message of his campaign: My vote in Congress in support of the president's agenda is more important than any unproven allegation of wrongdoing. His skill in Washington has helped him survive gaffes, blunders and scandal that would have rocked a senator from a big-media state (e.g., George Allen). Just in the past year, he has reportedly insulted working women and firefighters, and implied that he may have an illegal immigrant on his home payroll.
But Mr. Burns is nonetheless highly vulnerable this year. The electorate is not in a forgiving mood, even in a state that went 59% for George W. Bush in 2004. Mr. Tester, a burly, flat-topped, 50-year-old rancher from Big Sandy (pop. 700 and change), has for his part capitalized on Mr. Burns's blunders to take a four- to seven-point lead in the latest polls.
The national focus on Montana will increase dramatically in the last three weeks of the campaign. It's no secret that control of the Senate could hinge on the outcome of this and a couple of other key races; and money from both national parties and their associated committees has been pouring into the state. Mr. Burns, so far, has raised $6.8 million for his re-election campaign, Mr. Tester only $1.7 million, although a massive amount of money has been spent on advertising by non-campaign forces such as national political action committees.
If Mr. Tester wins, a great deal of attention will be focused on a supposed lurch to the left--especially in a state with emerging Democratic star Brian Schweitzer as governor--but that's not precisely the issue. Montana has a long tradition of quirky bi-partisanship, so there is room for both liberals and conservatives. But Mr. Burns no longer seems genuinely conservative to some, aside from sticking to the script on the usual hot-button issues, and has instead "gone native" in D.C.
The national media attention is also starting to grate on small-town Montana. The tightening web (noose?) of the Internet, the cable news and the blogs on the body politic is a huge turnoff. And the fundamental lack of seriousness is unworthy of the gravity of the challenges facing us.
That, at least, is the way it looks to Joani Young and others like her--no one is willing to clean up a system that seems worse than ever. Montanans are affronted by a culture of saying one thing and doing another, in a state where people pride themselves on simple, straightforward truth-telling. It's all the more galling in this particular race, with its national resonances.
If these two can't keep focused on what they want to accomplish for our nation, instead of what's wrong with each other--if they can't put partisan politics aside--then what hope is there for real change, and real progress? Ms. Young's letter expressed a typical sentiment--the floating sense of discontent with national politics--but proposed a novel solution: "None of the above."
Sen. Burns and Mr. Tester, take note. Democratic National Committee, take note. Republican National Committee, take note. Many voters have had enough--at least in Montana.
Mr. Miele is managing editor of the Kalispell, Mont. Daily Inter Lake.
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