Jon Tester

Jon Tester (born August 21, 1956) is the junior United States Senator from Montana, serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Tester was first elected to the Senate in 2006, in the closest Senate race of that year. He won re-election in 2012 against Rep. Denny Rehberg in another close Senate race. He had previously served as the president of the Montana Senate and worked as a music teacher and farmer.

Early life, education, and farming career
Tester was born in Havre, Montana, one of three sons of Helen Marie (née Pearson) and David O. Tester. His father was of English descent and his mother was of Swedish ancestry. Tester grew up in Chouteau County, near the town of Big Sandy, Montana, on the land that his grandfather homesteaded in 1912. At the age of 9, he lost the middle three fingers of his left hand in a meat-grinder accident. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Great Falls with a B.S. in music.

He then worked for two years as a music teacher in the Big Sandy School District before returning to his family's farm and custom butcher shop. He and his wife continue to operate the farm; in the 1980s, they changed over from conventional to organic farming, raising wheat, barley, lentils, peas, millet, buckwheat, and alfalfa. Tester served five years as chairman of the Big Sandy School Board of Trustees and served on the Big Sandy Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Committee and the Chouteau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) Committee.

Elections
Tester was first elected to the Montana State Senate in 1998, after his neighbor, a Republican state senator, decided not to run for re-election. He was elected the minority whip for the 2001 session. In 2002, he won re-election with 71% of the vote. In 2003, he became minority leader. In 2005, Tester was elected president of the Montana Senate, the chief presiding officer of the Montana Legislature's upper chamber.

Tenure
His election as President marked a transition for Montana Democrats as they moved into the majority leadership of the Senate for the first time in more than a decade. Term limits prohibited Tester from running for State Senate for a third consecutive term. While serving as Senate president, Tester supported increased funding for public education and cutting taxes for small business owners and the working poor. He also worked to make health insurance more affordable and require public utilities to use more renewable energy.

Committee assignments

 * Senate Finance Committee (2001–2004)
 * Senate Agriculture Committee (2000–2005)
 * Senate Rules Committee (2003–2005)
 * Senate Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs Committee (2005)
 * Council Interim Committee (2003–2004)

Elections

 * 2006

Tester announced his candidacy in May 2005 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican incumbent Senator Conrad Burns. Tester was the second Democrat to jump into the race, after state auditor John Morrison. While Tester was seen as having a greater following among his fellow legislators, his opponent, whose grandfather was governor of Nebraska, was able to raise significantly more money and had greater statewide name recognition.

Morrison collected $1.05 million as of the start of 2006, including $409,241 in the last three months of 2005, but "Morrison's advantages in fundraising and name identification have not translated into a lead in the polls," most of which showed the race exceedingly tight, some calling it a "deadlock" as of late May.

On June 6, 2006, Tester won the Democratic primary by a margin of over 25 percentage points, much larger than expected given the previous polling. Burns won the Republican primary over former state Senate President Bob Keenan. On election day, Tester received 199,845 votes versus 196,283 for Burns. Tester was declared the winner on Nov. 8, 2006. His victory, along with that of Jim Webb in Virginia, was one of the two closest and last decided Senate races in the 2006 midterms, which saw the Democrats regain control of the Senate.


 * 2012

He successfully ran for re-election to a second term against Republican U.S. Congressman Denny Rehberg.

Tester's race was seen as a pivotal one for both parties seeking the Senate majority. Tester split with Democrats on several key issues, such as on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but has also voted with his party on issues such as health care reform and the Dodd–Frank financial services overhaul.

When announcing his candidacy, Rehberg called Tester a "yes man" for President Obama, saying that he sided with the administration on 97% of his votes. He cited Tester's support for the healthcare legislation and the 2009 stimulus, both of which Rehberg opposed. Tester said that he stood by his votes on both, saying that the healthcare legislation contains "a lot of good stuff" and that the only thing failed about the stimulus was "a vote against it". The Los Angeles Times noted that Tester diverged from his party on topics such as gun rights and illegal immigration.

Tenure
Tester criticized Republicans in Congress for making policy that is designed "for those who write the biggest campaign checks". He has stated that Washington culture is "controlled by K Street cronies". He has spoken against gay marriage and flag burning, but sees Constitutional bans on each issue as unnecessary. Instead of avoiding class issues, Tester has also taken them head-on. On Meet the Press, he asserted that "there's no more middle class" because of Bush Administration policies.

During a Billings press conference, the Tester campaign released a statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledging to give Tester a coveted seat on the Appropriations Committee, regardless of whether Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans, "as soon as possible". On January 13, 2009, Tester's second session of Congress, he was given a seat on the Appropriations Committee.

A profile of Tester after his 2006 election described his as "truly your grandfather's Democrat—a pro-gun, anti-big-business prairie pragmatist whose life is defined by the treeless patch of hard Montana dirt that has been in the family since 1916."

He is pro-choice and supports embryonic stem cell research, and he has also voted to increase funding for Medicare and SCHIP. In the Senate, Tester continues to advocate increased funding for public education, just as he did in the Montana Legislature. Tester supports middle class tax cuts. He has voted against repealing the Estate Tax and Alternative Minimum Tax, policies he sees as favoring only the wealthy. When criticized for being soft on national security, Tester stated, "the Patriot Act has very little to do with the War on Terrorism" and asserted that "I don't want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it."

A January 2012 piece on Tester focused on the fact that he butchers and brings his own meat with him to Washington. He said "Taking meat with us is just something that we do.... We like our own meat."

Tester received some backlash from progressives who had embraced him in 2006 for his vote against the DREAM Act. It was reported that Markos Moulitsas was one of those who had become upset, saying that he thought Tester was "morally bankrupt" and that he would now go out of his way to oppose Tester's election bid. DNC member Jean Lemire Dahlman deemed his vote "a grave mistake", saying she was surprised by it. Tester responded to his critics, saying he believed that he was representing the desires of his constituents.

Tester voted to confirm Supreme Court nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Tester was one of only two Democratic senators to filibuster the American Jobs Act. It was reported that he wasn't concerned about the surtax on some families to pay for the plan, but was unsure that the new spending would actually create jobs.
 * Filibuster on American Jobs Act

Tester supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, voting for it in December 2009. Tester voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
 * Health care

On December 18, 2010, Tester voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
 * Don't Ask, Don't Tell

In April 2011 Tester was sharply criticized for introducing legislation to delay regulations that would cap the fees paid by retailers for debit card transactions at 12 cents while simultaneously accepting campaign contributions from the financial sector, which opposes such regulations. Tester later amended his legislation, reducing the delay from 24 months to 15 months.
 * Swipe fees controversy

It was reported that Tester opposed the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, where it was decided that corporations and unions had free-speech rights that allow them to donate money to third party political groups. Tester said that "corporations are a whole lot different than people. I don't know corporations that can be put in prison." He went on to say that he didn't believe that the forefathers envisioned corporations enjoying the same or more rights than people, which he thought was happening. Tester doesn't believe that it helps Republicans or Democrats, rather, it undermines our ability to effectively run the United States.
 * Corporate personhood

In March 2012 the Montana GOP filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee requesting an investigation into the actions of Tester and Max Baucus. The complaint cited a Politico report suggesting that Baucus' K Street connections were "warning clients against giving campaign contributions to Tester's Republican challenger Rep. Denny Rehberg". Tester denied any wrongdoing.
 * Receiving lobbyist money

Tester tried to revive a bill that was meant to be a compromise between the conservationists and the timber industry. The bill would put 700,000 acres of wilderness aside for "light-on-the-land logging projects" with the intention of creating jobs in the flagging industry. It was noted that Tester was not "winning admirers on his side", with some liberal environmentalists saying that gives lumber mills control of the national forests.
 * Timber

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Appropriations
 * Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
 * Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
 * Subcommittee on Homeland Security
 * Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
 * Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
 * Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
 * Subcommittee on Economic Policy
 * Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
 * Subcommittee on Financial Institutions
 * Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
 * Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
 * Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration
 * Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight
 * Committee on Indian Affairs
 * Committee on Veterans' Affairs

Caucus memberships

 * Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus (Co-Chair)
 * International Conservation Caucus

Personal life
During Tester's senior year in college, he married Sharla Bitz. Like Jon, Sharla Tester comes from an agricultural family and grew up in north-central Montana. The couple has two children: a daughter Christine, born in 1980; and a son Shon, born in 1985.

Tester has never lived more than two hours away from his farm, which is located in north-central Montana.

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