SurveyUSA's new Senate poll is out and Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) wins the booby prize with the highest disapproval rate in the land:
46% of Montanans disapprove of Burns! This hasn't occured overnight, check out the
trendline, Burns is sinking like a stone.
Not a good day for Burns, this morning's local press headlined, Ex-Burns aide talks to Justice
A former top aide to U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who quit to work at the firm of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff said Monday he is talking to Justice Department investigators as part of the agency's continuing probe of Abramoff's activities.
Reached at his Bozeman office, Will Brooke, Burns' onetime chief of staff, said he has hired a lawyer in the matter.
Meanwhile...
Montana Senate President Jon Tester isn't waiting for Burns to lose, he's running to win and has come out
swinging against the Patriot Act:
Montana Senate President Jon Tester today said that if he were currently serving in the U.S. Senate, he would join the bipartisan group of six Senators opposing the PATRIOT Act Conference Report because it violates Montana's long tradition of privacy protections.
"Montanans value our privacy," said Tester. "In fact, our state constitution guarantees our right against unnecessary government intrusion. But certain provisions of the PATRIOT Act, like the use of phone taps or search of a person's library or medical records with little justification, would infringe on that privacy."
"Fortunately, I'm not the only one with these concerns. Senators Feingold, Craig, Salazar, Murkowski, Durbin, and Sununu -- three Democrats and three Republicans - have raised these same issues. Clearly, the bipartisan nature of their coalition shows that their concerns are above politics," Tester said.
"If I were in the Senate today, I would join with these Senators in opposing this reauthorization in its current form," said Tester.
Tester was one of 127 Montana lawmakers in the 2005 Legislature to vote in favor of a resolution urging reconsideration of major sections of the PATRIOT Act.
"I was proud to join a bipartisan group of more than 80 percent of Montana's lawmakers who came together to support these common-sense reforms to the PATRIOT Act," said Tester. "Privacy is a core value of Montanans, and we could stand a few more Montana values in Washington."
Burns is in serious trouble and Tester is on offense. Let's give Tester the tools to go big in 2006, by helping with his December Fundraising Push (I've been proud to make a couple of contributions to Tester):
Our goal is to raise $10,000 for our field efforts, so we can "wrap Montana in blue" next year:
http://www.testerforsenate.com/...
We have the momentum, let's help Tester ramp up his grassroots field effort and beat Conrad Burns.