It probably won’t make Billboard’s Top 10. But it isn’t because Jon Tester’s new campaign tune - “It’s Tester Time” - won’t be heard plenty over the next few months. It certainly helped fire up the more than 200 folks who showed up for a rally in a Neptune Aviation hangar at lunch time Friday.Montana Democrats put together a high-end cast to officially kick off Tester’s effort to unseat Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, a cast that included state auditor John Morrison, the man Tester routed in the primary earlier this month, along with Montana Sen. Max Baucus, Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the party’s U.S. House candidate - Monica Lindeen - trying to oust Republican Cong. Denny Rehberg.
“It’s a great day,” Baucus said as the group’s unofficial emcee. “It’s critical to have someone (in Washington) who can help me get the job done for Montana.”
“Missoula has been bery, bery good to me,” Tester said. He then talked about what an honor it was for him to share the podium with the other four.
“This election isn’t about Democrats and Republicans,” Tester continued. “It’s about Montanans.”
He then said it’s obvious Burns doesn’t want to be responsible for improved health care, jobs and the war in Iraq, among other things.
“I’m going to send Conrad back to Missouri, and I’m going to be representing you folks,” Tester said.
Lindeen likened her campaign against Rehberg to a business situation.
“As a business person you have to make tough decisions,” she said, “and sometimes when somebody’s not doing the job you have to fire them.”
Lindeen said the 2006 election is about “taking back the country” for the middle class.
Schweitzer has long family ties to Tester. Their grandparents homesteaded 20 miles apart, and he and Tester were born in the same hospital in Havre.
Talking about the region’s recent drought and the resulting low levels in the Missouri River, Schweitzer said, “I’m happy to report there’s not enough water (in the Missouri) to float Conrad Burns back to Missouri.”
Morrison, whose margin of defeat at the hands of Tester shocked many, said the two of them heard the same message while campaigning against each other.
“We don’t have a democracy in Washington,” Morrison shouted. “We have an auction.”
Tester thanked Morrison for joining his team so quickly, and then gave marching orders to his enthusiastic supporters.
“What is going to win this election is a grass-roots effort,” he said, speaking from the experience of what many think carried him to his resounding primary win.
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