Jon Tester

Jon Tester

Template:TOCnestleft Jon Tester is a Democratic member of the United States Senate, representing Montana.

Background

Senator Jon Tester is third-generation Montana farmer, a proud grandfather and a former school teacher who has deep roots in hard work, responsibility and accountability.

Jon and his wife Sharla still farm the same land near the town of Big Sandy, Mont. that was homesteaded by Jon’s grandparents in 1912. Jon’s parents believed public education and family agriculture are the cornerstones of democracy—and those values had a tremendous role in shaping Jon’s leadership.

After earning a degree in music from the College of Great Falls, Jon took over the Tester farm in 1978. He also taught music at F.E. Miley Elementary and eventually was elected to the Big Sandy School Board. Fired up by the Montana Legislature’s decision to deregulate Montana’s power industry (resulting in higher power costs), Jon ran for and was elected to the Montana Senate in 1998.

In 2005, Jon’s colleagues chose him to serve as Montana Senate President. The people of Montana elected Jon to the U.S. Senate in 2006 and again in 2012..

Politics

Jon Tester launched his political career in response to huge rate hikes following the deregulation of Montana’s energy industry in the 1990s. He was elected to the Montana Senate in 1997 and became Senate President in 2005. His 2006 campaign for U.S. Senate ousted a three-term incumbent, putting Jon in the same Senate seat once held by former Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield.

Committees

Tester serves on the Veterans’ Affairs, Homeland Security, Indian Affairs, Banking and Appropriations Committees.

Communist Party enthusiasm

According to a report to the National Committee of the Communist Party USA June 24, 2006;

There were also some outright victories for peace candidates.

In Montana, State Senator Jon Tester who has a very strong labor, environment and peace record won a landslide victory in the US Senate primary over a Democratic Leadership Council candidate who was favored to win. Tester will challenge incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns who is considered the second most vulnerable in the Senate.

ARA endorsement

August 16, the Alliance for Retired Americans proudly endorsed Senator Jon Tester for re-election for the United States Senate at a membership meeting in Helena.

Sharla Tester with from left; Tom Snyder, Don Kinman, Ed Logan

In 2011, Sen. Tester earned a perfect 100% score for his votes on seniors’ issues, according to the Alliance for Retired Americans 2011 Voting Record; he has earned the trust of the Alliance for Retired Americans and seniors.

“Jon Tester’s commitment to protect Social Security and Medicare is proven. His vigorous opposition and votes to combat cuts to the programs – including privatization; cuts in benefits and raising the eligibility age – confirm his commitment to improve the quality of life for older Americans,” said Barbara Easterling, President of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She continued, “Jon Tester has confirmed through both his words and his votes that he understands the value of Social Security and Medicare to Americans and that he will work to keep these programs strong and solvent without slashing benefits.”

His wife Sharla Tester accepted for him.

LA fundraiser

In November 2011, Steve Bing, Peter Lowy, Michele Reiner and Rob Reiner hosted a fund-raising evening for Montana’s Democratic senator, Jon Tester, at Craft restaurant in Century City.

Tester, who eked out a narrow win over three-term Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in the Democratic sweep that carried Barack Obama into the White House, remains one of the party’s chief hopes in the Mountain West.

Supported by Council for a Livable World

The Council for a Livable World, founded in 1962 by long-time socialist activist and alleged Soviet agent, Leo Szilard, is a non-profit advocacy organization that seeks to "reduce the danger of nuclear weapons and increase national security", primarily through supporting progressive, congressional candidates who support their policies. The Council supported Jon Tester in his successful Senate run as candidate for Montana.

2012 CLW Senate victories

2012 CLW Senate Victories were;

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Chris Murphy (D-CT) Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jon Tester (D-MT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

According to the Council for a Livable World website;

In 2006, endorsed early by Council for a Livable World, he scored the biggest surprise of the primary elections by coming from far behind to trounce his heavily favored opponent. He then went on to win a close general election contest, defeating a sitting Republican Senator by 3,500 votes.

Tester serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, including the key Energy and Water Subcommittee that appropriates non-proliferation program funding.

Senator Tester again faces a tough challenge in the 2012 election. His opponent is Montana’s at large Congressman, U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg (R).

Tester has averaged 85% on the Council’s scorecard over past four years that included votes on the New START Treaty, Afghanistan, missile defense, the Iraq War and North Korea. Rehberg, on the other hand, has averaged under 9% over the same time period on Council for a Livable World’s PeacePAC voting record.

21st Century Democrats support

21st Century Democrats is a Political Action Committee that has stood for Progressive causes for over 20 years. Founded in 1986 by Institute for Policy Studies affiliate, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Democratic Socialists of America affiliates, former Texas Agriculture Secretary Jim Hightower, and former Illinois Congressman Lane Evans. Its three main goals are to help elect progressive candidates, train young people about grassroots organizing, and lastly, to continue to support our elected officials after Election Day "through our comprehensive progressive network".

Carol Moseley Braun, a former US Senator from Illinois, and long time Communist Party USA affiliate, serves on the organization's Advisory Board. Long time Board chair was Democratic Socialists of America member Jim Scheibel, a former Mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The mission of 21st Century Democrats is to build a "farm team" of progressive populists who will be the future leaders of the Democratic Party.

In each election cycle, we endorse a diverse array of candidates who exemplify our values and show unusual promise to advance our progressive goals. We invest in some of the most competitive races as well as in some of the most challenging – those in which the candidates are outstanding but the traditional Democratic supporters are most reticent. We back candidates in primaries as well as general election races, and we focus the bulk of our resources on electing challengers and protecting vulnerable incumbents.

Jon Tester was first endorsed by 21st Century Democrats when he ran for Montana State Senate in 1998. He was supported again in his successful 2012 U.S. Senate re-election bid.

Relationship with Marshall Mayer

From the Daily Kos

Jon Tester has a relationship with one time Montana Democratic Socialists of America leader Marshall Mayer, and his wife Bonnie Lambert.

Amanda Curtis Host Committee

You are invited to Helena's premier fundraising event to Support Amanda Curtis for the U.S. Senate on October 15th (2014) from 5-7pm at the historic Windsor Ballroom atop the Iron Front Hotel in downtown Helena.

Let's give Amanda Curtis a big Helena welcome, and send her off with buckets of hear-earned, home-grown cash contributions!

Amanda's Helena Hosts:

• Kim Abbott
• Steve Bullock and Lisa Bullock
• Phil Campbell and Judy Fay
• Carlo Canty and Marietta Canty
• Lin Deola and Shaun Deola
• Andres Haladay
• Sarah Jaeger
• Denise Juneau
• Christine Kaufmann and Pat Kemp
• Nancy Keenan
• Jane Kollmeyer and Terry Chute
• Bonnie Lambert and Marshall Mayer*
• Beth Murphy
• Jon Satre and Paulette Etchart
• Sarah Sullivan
• Jon Tester and Sharla Tester
• Norma Tirrell and Gordon Bennett*
• Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs and John Tubbs
• Ali Wibbeler Zackheim and Alan Zackheim

Take Back America Conferences

John Tester was on the list of 237 speakers at the 2007 Take Back America conference, which was organized by the Institute for Policy Studies, and Democratic Socialists of America dominated Campaign for America's Future.

An almost "Progressive" Cabinet "nominee"

In September 2008, Chicago based socialist journal In These Times asked its editors and writers to suggest their top progressive choices for a potential Obama Cabinet.

We asked that contributors weigh ideological and political considerations, with an eye toward recommending people who have both progressive credentials and at least an arguable chance at being appointed in an Obama White House.

This group of people would represent at once the most progressive, aggressive and practical Cabinet in contemporary history. Of course, it is by no means a definitive list. It is merely one proposal aimed at starting a longer discussion about the very concept of a progressive Cabinet—and why it will be important to a new administration, especially if that administration is serious about change.

David Moberg suggested Jim Hightower for Agriculture Secretary - he also spoke highly of Tom Harkin and Jon Tester:

Two current U.S. senators would make excellent secretaries of agriculture.

One is Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). Harkin has been a committee chair and leader on agriculture issues, opposing deregulation and favoring supply management, conservation, antitrust actions and many progressive policies — only some of which he has managed to put into law.

The other is freshman Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), an organic farmer with a distinctive flat-top haircut. Tester is a populist who is sympathetic to environmental issues and critical of corporate globalization. He might push more comprehensive reform than Harkin would.

But here’s the problem: Both are needed in the Senate.

Luckily, Obama can call on Jim Hightower, who is best known for his crusading print and radio journalism and his pithy, punchy, populist proverbs — like his book title, “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.”

But the funny, feisty Hightower also knows his farm and food issues. As Texas Agriculture Commissioner from 1983 to 1990, he promoted organic agriculture, alternative crops (like wine grapes and native plants), direct international marketing by small farmers, strong pesticide control and comprehensive environmental management.

Hightower would be a cheerfully combative complement to Obama’s ultra-cool post-partisanship (although he may have been too post-partisan for some Democrats by supporting Ralph Nader in 2000).

If Obama ever needs a Cabinet member to attack the fat cats who keep the sweet stuff for themselves on the top shelf — out of reach for the little guy — he could send Hightower, who would perform the task with glee.

Cuba visit

With an annual cost of roughly $2 million per detainee, the 13-year-old Guantanamo Bay Detention Center needs to be closed, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, said Monday.

Tester, who toured Guantanamo in early February 2014, said then the subject comes up later this year, he will push to close the facility, where the Department of Defense houses 155 detainees, many without trial, some since Jan. 11, 2002 and the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.

Tester toured Guantanamo Bay on Saturday as part of a two-day visit to Cuba, with Sens., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

The senators also met with American Alan Gross, who has been jailed in Cuba since 2010 for setting up unrestricted Internet access for Jewish groups. Cuba considered Gross’ actions subversive and sentenced the Marylander to 15 years detention.

Tester said there was also talk with Cuban officials about the Cuban trade embargo launched in 1960 after the Cuban Revolution ushered Fidel Castro’s communist government into power. There is talk in the United States of easing the embargo and lawmakers from farm states see an opportunity for trade if that occurs.

Tester said the rule of Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, could present the best opportunity for normalizing relations with Cuba without presenting a threat to the Fidel Castro legacy. But Raul Castro is old and the opportunity might not last forever.

“Raul is 83 years old and in very good health. He’s one of the few people who could do this from a Cuban perspective,” Tester said.

The three-day tour was organized by Sen. Jon Tester, and the party was in Cuba when President Barack Obama signed the farm legislation, allowing U.S. farmers greater access to Cuba into law.

2014 WOLA Awards

WOLA's 2014 Human Rights Award Ceremony page

The Honorary Committee for Washington Office on Latin America's 2014 Human Rights Award Ceremony and Benefit Gala, consisted of;

• Former Rep. David Bonior
• Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
• Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
• Sen. Christopher Dodd
• Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)
• Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)
• Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA)
• Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
• Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)
• Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA)
• Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)
• Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
• Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI)
• Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)
• Rep. James McGovern (D-MA)
• Rep. James Moran (D-VA)
• Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
• Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
• Former U.S. Sec. of Labor Hilda Solis
• Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT)

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) was named the next chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in November 2014, placing a red-state Democrat with a populist streak in charge of recruiting 2016 candidates for the party.

Tester's new role was announced after Democrats in the Capitol held their leadership elections.

"One of my concerns moving forward is being able to win in every state across this country -- red state, purple state and blue," Tester told reporters shortly after the new leadership team held a press conference.

Tester does have strong ties within the larger Democratic infrastructure. Stephanie Schriock, his former chief of staff -- and another oft-mentioned possible Clinton campaign manager -- has turned the group EMILY's List into a Democratic juggernaut.

Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015

S 299, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015, principal sponsors are Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

By May 20, it had accumulated 33 co-sponsors, including 26 Democrats - Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Udall, Dick Durbin, Thomas Carper, Amy Klobuchar, Barbara Boxer, Jack Reed, Debbie Stabenow, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Benjamin Cardin, Chris Coons, Dianne Feinstein, Jeanne Shaheen, Sherrod Brown, Mazie Hirono, Brian Schatz, Tammy Baldwin, Ed Markey, Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill, Ron Wyden, Tim Kaine, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet, Martin Heinrich .

Democratic Party leaders 2015

• Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Chairman
• Rep. Ben Ray Luján, Democratic Congressional Committee Chair
• Sen. Jon Tester, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair
• Gov. Steve Bullock, Democratic Governors Association Chair

Hiring Michael LaValley

In September 2016, U.S. Senate)-Senator Jon Tester has hired Michael LaValley as his new Native American Liaison.

LaValley is a Blackfeet American Indian with deep roots on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation where most of his family currently resides. LaValley joins Tester's staff after spending the past year working as the Wilma Mankiller Legislative Fellow for the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C.

"I am excited that Michael is on board to help serve folks in Indian Country," Tester said. "Michael understands our trust responsibility and the critical issues facing Native American families and I know he will work hard to respond to the needs of Montana's Tribal Nations."

Single Payer

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said on Wednesday September 6, 2017 that Congress should perhaps take a “solid look” at a single-payer health care system.

Tester's comments during a bipartisan hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee come at a time when more Democrats are getting on board with the idea of government-funded health care.

Tester, a centrist, spoke about how his parents lived without health insurance for most of their life, until they went on Medicare.

“My folks never had health insurance on the farm. They retired in 1970. Never had health insurance ever.”

“Their first insurance they had was Medicare. There’s a reason for that: In the mid-60s when that happened, it was $400,” said Tester, who is up for reelection in what is likely to be one of the most competitive Senate races in 2018.

“So the question is, there’s been a lot of debate, there’s been amendments offered on single payer for political purposes, but maybe not. Maybe it’s something we should, quite frankly, take a solid look at.”

Tester then asked the hearing's panel of experts how to finance the health care system and how to control the costs.

Tester has been open to various options on decreasing the cost of health care.

During the Senate ObamaCare repeal debate, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) offered an amendment to implement a government-funded health care system in an effort to get Democrats on the record on their vote for single-payer.

The amendment was shot down 0 to 57 with most Democrats voting "present." Tester was one of four Democrats — and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) — who went on record as voting no.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) championed the idea of “Medicare for All” during his presidential bid last year. He plans to introduce a bill soon, and last week received the endorsement and co-sponsorship of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2020.

While Sanders said the idea isn’t a litmus test for Democrats, it’s gained traction recently, with more than half of the House Democratic Caucus co-sponsoring a Medicare for All bill in the House. That’s almost double the number who co-sponsored the measure last congressional session.

External links

• Tester's website with the Senate

References

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