Surprisingly, Adam Nagourney gets the Francine Busby story basically right. Busby had little business pulling 45% of the vote in a district with a 44-29 Republican voter registration advantage. Meanwhile, Bilbray couldn’t even reach 50%. The Republicans poured five million dollars into a race that they should have won without trying.
Matt Stoller isn’t satisfied with a moral victory. He blames Busby’s loss on her timid, ideology-free, Washington consultant inspired, campaign rhetoric, and he contrasts it with the unapologetic anti-war populism that Jon Tester used to thump John Morrison in Montana.
Jon Tester’s victory wasn’t just an upset. It was a resounding upset (61%-35%). And even Tester gives credit to the netroots.
Over the clamor of a victory party in a Missoula hotel, Tester said in a telephone interview, “I thought we had a good chance of winning this thing. The numbers surprised me.”
Tester attributed his win to his campaign’s grass-roots efforts involving hundreds of volunteers. Morrison outspent him $1.14 million to $662,805.
“We hit the ground running tomorrow, and it’s another campaign for five months,” Tester said. “It’s overdrive now. It’s for real. It’s all-out. We did a lot of hard work getting here, and there’s no looking back.”
Just through Act Blue the netroots raised $46,000 for Tester (or seven percent of what he’s spent so far). What did we buy with all that money? Take a look at how the Tester campaign treated Conrad Burns last night.
Shortly after Tester was declared the winner, Burns fired off a statement calling on Tester to say how he would vote on some hot-button issues coming before the U.S. Senate such as the proposed constitutional bans on gay marriage and flag burning and the repeal of the estate tax.
“These are all important issues, and Montanans deserve to know how you would vote,” Burns said.
In response, Tester spokesman Bill Lombardi said, “Voters across Montana have spoken loudly and clearly tonight. They want to end Senator Burns’ kind of corruption in Washington, and we’re looking forward to that kind of debate.”
There’s a brutal counterpunch right at the ring of the bell. Burns is reeling already. Burns wants to talk about flag burning and gays and giving rich people a bigger inheritence. Tester isn’t having it. There is a different flavor to netroots candidates. Remember Hackett calling Bush a chickenhawk? Telling the truth to power has an appeal all its own. Its an appeal the Washington consultants don’t get. Conrad Burns is a corrupt politician. Tester isn’t afraid to say it to his face.
There is another reason to welcome Tester as our nominee. He’s not just another trial lawyer.
Tester, 49, is the president of the Montana Senate after serving as minority leader in 2003. He is an organic grain farmer from Big Sandy who previously taught music in local schools.
Give me big, burly organic grain farming music teachers anytime over trial attorneys. The more regular folks we have representing us, the more the laws will be crafted for the benefit of regular folks.