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Jon Tester, Candidate for U.S. Senate
Democrat from Montana

Governor Brian Schweitzer
Democrat from Montana

Jim Farrell, Executive Director
Montana Democratic Party

Music by Wilco, Marah and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Missoula, MT:

Jon Tester
Candidate for U.S. Senate
Montana
Website

Jon Tester was born near Big Sandy, Montana and grew up working on his family’s farm which his grandfather had homesteaded in 1916. Tester also helped run his family’s butcher shop. In the late 1980s, Tester transformed his conventional farm to an organic farm. His family now grows organic wheat, barley, lentils, peas, millet, buckwheat, alfalfa and hay. The Testers still operate the butcher shop for close friends and relatives to this day.

Jon Tester served for 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. He was elected to the Montana State Senate in 1998. After his re-election in 1992, Tester became minority leader of the Senate. In 2005, Tester was elected President of the Montana Senate, the chief presiding officer of the Montana Legislature’s upper chamber. He took the Presidency just as Montana Democrats moved into the majority leadership of the Senate for the first time in more than a decade.

Jon Tester is now running for United States Senate against Republican Conrad Burns. Burns is being investigated by the Department of Justice for his alleged connections to GOP super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Brian Schweitzer
Governor of Montana
Website

Brian Schweitzer was elected Governor of Montana in 2004. Previous to his election Schweitzer was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the United States Department of Agriculture as a member of the Montana USDA Farm Service Agency committee, where he worked for seven years. While working for the USDA, he was appointed to the Montana Rural Development Board (1996), and the National Drought Task Force (1999).

In 2000, Brian Schweitzer ran for the US Senate against Conrad Burns and lost by only a small margin. In the process, he increased his statewide name ID and built political alliances that helped him during his 2004 campaign for Governor.

Brian Schweitzer is currently one of the most popular governors in the nation, with polls showing an approval rating near 74 percent.

Jim Farrell
Executive Director
Montana Democratic Party
Website

Jim Farrell serves as the Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party. Farrell is a native of Delaware and has worked in numerous political jobs all over the country, including being the spokesman and campaign manager for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN).

MUSIC:

Wilco
“A Shot In The Arm”
from The 2000 Bill Of Rights Awards Dinner album

Marah
“The Hustle”
from If You Didn’t Laugh You’d Cry