KALISPELL - Surrounded by dozens of Semitool employees, the high-tech company's founder and chief executive officer makes the strongest sales pitch he can for U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns' re-election.
During a morning break, CEO Ray Thompson tells workers that he considers Burns to be a friend of Semitool.
Standing in the cavernous former Costco, Burns chimes in, “I think we're overtaxed in the state of Montana.”
Burns rattles off a slew of tax statistics - the same ones he used at a Bozeman debate the night before. Taxes will increase significantly for certain Montana families in 2011, the Republican senator says, if tax cuts proposed by President Bush and passed by Congress, with Burns' support, aren't extended.
Burns says his bitterly contested race against Democrat Jon Tester boils down to one issue - taxes.
“I will tell you, that's what this election is all about,” Burns says. “He wants to repeal all of those tax cuts of 2001, 2002 and 2003.”
Burns contrasts his and Tester's positions on tax hikes in a similar presentation at Semitool's other building in Kalispell.
“My opponent has never seen a tax increase he didn't vote for,” Burns says. “He voted to raise fees on everything from Coca-Cola to fishing licenses. When he got to the fishing license, I said, ‘That's enough.' ”
Adds Burns, “I happen to believe the more money we keep in your pocket, the better off you are and the better off we are.”
Trailing in the polls, Burns tells Semitool workers at the first site he can still win the race - with the help of voters like them.
“It can be done,” Burns tells the workers. “I need your vote, come Nov. 7.”
Thompson points to a computer that Semitool has set up for workers to register to vote in the Nov. 7 election if they haven't already.
“I'm not telling you how to vote,” Thompson says.
Then he interrupts himself.
“Well, yes I am,” Thompson says, laughing. “Give him your vote.”
Semitool machinist Russ Lucas, who once worked for Ross Perot's company in Dallas, says afterward he's voted for both Democrats and Republicans. He's still undecided in the Senate race.
Lucas says he wants to do a little more research into Tester's voting record. If it's true Tester opposes extending the Bush tax cuts, Lucas says he'll likely vote for Burns. Tester, in fact, has favored keeping two tax breaks ending the marriage penalty and the tuition tax credit while ending the others.
The machinist says he trusts Semitool CEO Thompson's judgment.
“I think Ray's a pretty good judge of character,” Lucas says. “He knows a lot more than we do about the situation.”
Randy Fields, who runs Semitool's cabinet shop and has worked for the company for 30 years, already has decided to vote for Burns.
“I respect the man,” Fields says in an interview. “I've been supporting him for several years.”
At a quick press conference in the same building, Burns picks up a couple of endorsements from the National Tax Limitation Committee and the 60 Plus Association, a conservative senior group.
Burns also signs a big poster vowing to repeal “the death tax,” Republican lingo for the federal estate tax, which is paid on a tiny percentage of estates. In Montana, only 60 of all estates in 2004, or 0.7 percent, owed an estate tax, the Internal Revenue Service reports.
Smiling for the cameras as he accepts the awards, Burns jokes, “Another award! They're going to have to give me give me a bigger I-love-me wall.”
For Burns, this visit was to solidify his base in heavily Republican Flathead County.
With Burns rated as one of the most vulnerable GOP senators nationally, the question looming in political circles is whether the old political warhorse can come from behind in the polls to win a fourth term.
Burns, who took more money from disgraced lobbyist and admitted felon Jack Abramoff, his associates and clients than any other member of Congress, has been campaigning under the scandal's shadow for months. Two members of Burns' staff attended the 2001 Super Bowl at Abramoff's invitation. One of those, former Chief of Staff Will Brooke, later quit Burns' office to take a job with Abramoff. Brooke told Lee Newspapers that he has voluntarily contacted the Justice Department.
While the Justice Department has remained silent about the scope of its investigation into the matter, many national newspapers have reported that Burns is under investigation.
At age 71, Burns could have announced his retirement and ridden off into the sunset. That would have spared him the Democrats' withering, 16-month attack on his ethics over his ties to Abramoff. Burns continues to insist he did nothing illegal.
So why is he running again?
“We just got a few things more to do,” says Burns, the first Republican senator ever re-elected by voters in Montana. “I want to complete those rural water projects.”
If he's re-elected and Republicans retain control of the Senate, Burns is in line to be chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee in two years.
Asked if he considered not running, Burns said his wife, Phyllis, certainly entertained the idea of him retiring, but he didn't consider it seriously.
“Two years ago, retirement entered my head, and I tell you what, that word scares me to death,” he says over a cheeseburger, strawberry shake and fries at Norm's News in Kalispell. “What would you do?”
Burns said he hates the direction Montana politics is heading and deplores the “character assassination” he believes Tester and the Democrats have unleashed on him.
“They drug Phyllis into this story on character assassination,” he says. “Then they attacked our kids.”
That infuriated him, Burns says, but he won't resort in kind.
“We'll fight back on his (voting) record - not against Jon Tester,” Burns says.
In 2000, Burns said internal polls showed him trailing then-political unknown Brian Schweitzer by nine or 10 points with 12 days left in the race. George W. Bush won Montana with 58 percent of the vote, carrying Burns, who had
51 percent, on his coattails.
This year, Bush is now unpopular in a state he won twice by big margins, and Montanans disapprove of how the president is handling the war in Iraq. Burns brushed aside the question of whether Bush is dragging him down this year.
“I got to believe that all politics is local,” he says. “Tip O'Neill was right. What matters most to people in Montana is do we represent their values. This has never been a state where you wholesale politics. You retail politics. I try to be as accessible as possible. You meet as many people as you can.”
Burns says the key is to never lose faith in Montana people and to tell his story - a true story to Montanans.
“I'm not the most articulate guy in the world,” says Burns, a former county commissioner, agricultural radio broadcaster and cattle auctioneer. “My grammar isn't always the best. But people know how I vote. I represent those values of family and hard work. So you live your life that way, and the truth will set you free.”
He readily admits his worst habit is “you speak before you think.” Burns' off-the-cuff comments - criticizing firefighters for doing a “piss-poor job” on a fire near Billings, referring to Arabs as “rag-heads” and using the N-word, among many - have landed him embarrassing headlines over the years.
“I'm sorry about it,” he said.
Burns' campaign theme in 2006 is that he “delivers for Montana.” From his perch on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Burns says he has steered more than $2 billion to Montana during his tenure in the Senate. That's federal money, he says, that has provided money for university research, hospitals, water projects and a host of other efforts that have helped Montana and enhanced its economy, education, health care and natural resources.
The senator's next stop this day is at Pablo, headquarters of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Indian Reservation, where Burns has obtained $86.5 million for projects over the years.
Burns has nearly completed his visits to meet with leaders of all seven Indian reservations in Montana, plus those from the landless Little Shell Tribe.
After meeting privately with Tribal Chairman James Steele Jr., Burns follows him into the council chambers, where a large banner welcomes the senator. Burns briefly addresses the council, praising Steele for “doing a pretty darn good job.”
Then it's off to a reception at the cafeteria of Salish Kootenai College. Planted in the grounds around the college building are Burns re-election signs.
Joe McDonald, president of the college, tells the group that Burns has long been a great advocate for the college. Burns returns the praise, saying McDonald suggests what the college needs and he tries to secure the funds.
“You can't believe how proud I am of this facility and of this school,” Burns says. “It has been a model in Indian Country.”
Burns talks individually with students, a number of whom want their photos taken with him. Their questions, some of them prompted by a Democratic Party operative in the room, run the gamut from tuition tax credits to Indian sovereignty to same-sex marriages.
One student, Pius Takes Horse, says afterward, “Personally, I think that he (Burns) could help us out a lot because he's been around a long time, and he has experience dealing with us. But on the other hand is his Republican hand and having to deal with George Bush.”
Takes Horse gives Burns credit for showing up.
“Conrad Burns is actually putting forth the effort to visit, and that to me is speaking louder than Jon Tester, who is sending a representative.”
Troy Arlee, however, was disappointed in Burns' stance against same-sex marriage.
“I felt myself getting really upset,” Arlee says. “I felt like he was unsupportive.”
Then McDonald takes Burns on a van tour to show him new dormitories under construction next to existing dorms and the site where a new information technology center will be built - all funded with appropriations obtained by Burns.
As he campaigns, Burns repeatedly emphasizes his 18 years' seniority in the Senate and what it means to Montana.
There is some irony in his pitch because seniority, of course, is what Sen. John Melcher, D-Mont., stressed in his bid for a third term in 1988 before he was knocked off by Burns.
After he defeated Melcher, Burns says a reporter asked him what he had learned after becoming a senator that he didn't know when he ran for the Senate.
“I found out that the old senator (Melcher) made a good case,” Burns now acknowledges. “There is something to seniority and effectiveness. There's something to institutional knowledge if you really want to be effective.”
Conrad Burns
Office sought: U.S. senator
Political party: Republican
Office salary: $165,200
Age: 71
Birthdate and place: Jan. 25, 1935, in Gallatin, Mo.
Home: Billings/Arlington, Va.
Occupation: U.S. senator
Family: Wife, Phyllis; grown son and daughter
Education: Graduate of Gallatin (Mo.) High School, 1952; attended University of Missouri for two years
Past employment: 1989-present, U.S. senator representing Montana; 1987-89, Yellowstone County commissioner; 1975-86, partner in Northern Ag Network, a radio/farm broadcasting network; 1973-75, Riverton Livestock Auction in Riverton, Wyo.; 1968-73, auctioneer and ag broadcaster for Billings Livestock Co.; 1967-68, manager of Northern International Livestock Expo in Billings; 1961-67, field representative for Polled Hereford World Magazine, covering seven states; 1958-61, truck driver and ticket agent for TransWorld Airlines and Ozark Airlines in Kansas City, Mo.
Military: U.S. Marine Corps., 1955-57
Political experience: Served as U.S. senator since 1989, re-elected twice; Yellowstone County commissioner in Billings from 1987 until winning Senate seat in 1988, defeating incumbent Democrat John Melcher.
Get to know Conrad Burns a little better
Here is a quick, and decidedly informal, conversation with U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
Tell us something about you that would surprise people.
I enjoy and listen to a lot of classical music.
Your greatest weakness?
Speaking before thinking.
Your greatest strength?
My sense of humor.
What were your first and worst jobs you've held?
Stock boy at a large drugstore.
What book are you currently reading?
Just finished reading “How the Scots Invented the Modern World,” by Arthur Herman.
Favorite music artist/CD?
Alan Jackson.
Favorite movie?
“The Man from Snowy River.”
Favorite TV program?
I watch very little TV, but I do like the History Channel.
Favorite sports team?
St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs.
Hobbies?
Fishing and golf.
What political or historical figure do you most admire?
Harry Truman and Winston Churchill.
Do you play a musical instrument?
Absolutely none; I cannot carry a tune.
Where do you go to recharge your batteries?
Driving my pickup truck on Montana back roads, to reconnect with friends all over Montana. I also like to fly-fish or play a round of golf.
How much money did you give to charity last year, and to which charities?
Between $5,000 and $10,000 cash, and donated time and my auctioneering talent to raise more than $500,000. Organizations include March of Dimes, food banks, National Press Club. The cash went mostly to church and youth groups.
What do you volunteer for, to give back to your community?
Activities too numerous to mention.
Have you ever been without health insurance, and for how long?
Yes; most of my married life until I became a U.S. senator.
Have you ever been arrested and convicted of any crime?
No.
- Missoulian State Bureau
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