Montana U.S. Senate hopeful trumpets need for change
2006-10-16
Source: Great Falls Tribune
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rss feedIt was the first cold day of the season on the Hi-Line, gray clouds clumped low, the sky spitting sleet, and the cutting wind providing a reminder why most people live someplace else. It was just Jon Tester's luck to be campaigning outdoors.
The hatless, gloveless Democrat from Big Sandy soldiered through a long Festival Days parade in Havre, shaking hands with people bundled in parkas and wrapped in quilts. Later, he turned his attention to going door to door in Shelby - where it was, if possible, even colder - asking folks to vote for him instead of the three-term Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns.
It began badly.
As Tester, 50, set out in Shelby, campaign spokesman Matt McKenna bragged in a whisper about the painstaking organization that preceded the door-to-door approach, where candidate and volunteers alike carried checklists of targeted questions. Only problem is, Tester had forgotten his reading glasses, so the detailed form was a blur.
Then his staff couldn't find the addresses on the lists. They pored interminably over a map, as Tester fidgeted in the back of the car. The clock was ticking, and he had to be in Chester soon for an interview and a listening session.
Finally, Tester leapt from the car, and marched to the nearest door, with McKenna jogging behind, warning, "It's not on the list." Tester suggested, nearly unprintably, that the list be tossed, and knocked anyway.
He returned, beaming.
Arlene Littlejohn was voting for him. "I'm tired of Burns," she told him.
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