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As recently as last week, the Rehberg campaign hammered Tester for his lobbyist donations, with Rehberg campaign manager Erik Iverson saying that cash was a major reason why the Rehberg campaign was trailing in fundraising.

But an Associated Press analysis of campaign finance disclosure reports through October turned up nearly three dozen lobbyists, who donated a total of about $20,000 to Rehberg’s campaign, with their employment left blank on disclosure forms.

The occupation was found with a search of a database of lobbyists at the Center for Responsive Politics and a Federal Elections Commission database of other campaign finance disclosures.

Candidates are required to list the name, address and occupation of each individual contributor on disclosure forms submitted to the FEC. But the AP analysis found the Rehberg campaign did not list the occupation on 189 contributions for the first nine months of 2011. That’s 13 percent of the 1,400 donations received by the campaign over that time frame.

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Tester had far fewer donors with a blank occupation, about 1 percent of his 4,675 individual contributions over the same period. None of those unlisted individuals was found to be a registered federal lobbyist. He did have some registered lobbyists who described their occupation more generally, such as “government relations.”

Many of those left blank on Rehberg’s disclosure reports are individuals who come from well-known Washington D.C. lobbying firms, including a policy adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney who now lobbies for Shell Oil. But the Rehberg campaign reported to federal election officials that it did not know the occupations of the donors, simply reporting that it was still working on finding the information.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Rehberg ranked 10th among the 435 members of the House with $74,450 in donations from lobbyists so far in the 2012 election cycle.

The center said unreported occupations can trick its analysis and result in an artificially low tally.
The Tester campaign, alleging the information was purposely left off the disclosure forms by Rehberg’s campaign, pointed out that Rehberg has also called for more accountability in campaign donations.

“This is exactly why Montanans can’t trust Dennis Rehberg. He just called for ’100 percent transparency’ in campaign fundraising, then he hid the money he takes from Washington lobbyists,” said spokesman Aaron Murphy.

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Conservation groups and logging companies continue to push for the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, which would designate more than 670,000 acres of wilderness on three national forests while mandating 8,000 acres per year of logging for 15 years.

Tony Colter, a spokesman for Sun Mountain Lumber in Deer Lodge, said the owners of Montana’s eight remaining timber mills are strongly supportive of the bill.

“It’s a critical thing for us in the timber industry,” he said. “We’re not giving up on it.”

Tester’s bill has been on the table since 2007, when he first proposed the measure as a compromise between logging and environmental groups. It calls for new wilderness designations on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Kootenai and Lolo national forests. It was tailored on a partnership of environmental groups and timber companies that worked on the proposal to end years of stalemate over forest management.

The bill has been extremely controversial, with motorized access, mining, ranching and other groups opposing its wilderness provisions. And county commissioners in Beaverhead and Madison counties remain sharply opposed, saying they were left out of the bill’s drafting yet would have most of the wilderness areas in their counties.

Garth Haugland, a Beaverhead County commissioner, said Tester’s staff hasn’t contacted them for over two years while still pushing for the bill over the county’s objections. And he said their county still has serious concerns with the bill because of its impact on county industries, especially grazing on public lands.

“Why would we create more areas that are essentially locked up from any productive use?” he said. “The public land grazers are very concerned over the additional restrictions that are placed on them to graze cattle in a wilderness area.”

Haugland said Beaverhead County still sees deep problems with the bill’s logging provisions as well. He noted that while the wilderness is permanent, the logging projects will still be subject to appeals and lawsuits to shut them down and have a sunset of 15 years.

“We don’t see how additional wilderness areas will benefit the tax structure of Beaverhead County,” he said.

Dave Schulz, a Madison County commissioner, said they remain opposed to the measure for similar reasons.

“There are no promises we’ll cut a tree,” he said.

Tester has attached the measure as a rider on several pieces of legislation, but in all those instances it didn’t pass. But he has said he’ll keep looking for opportunities.

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U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus say the Obama administration promises to include a new mission based around the C-130 transport plane as part of the president’s new budget plan.

The Democrats say that the C-130 is a “highly-valued mission” that will make sure the Great Falls air base and its airmen are kept in action.

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The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which cleared a procedural hurdle this week on a 93-2 vote, has become a magnet for amendments that could have significant impact on the power and perks lawmakers have enjoyed for decades.

Specifically, some senior senators are bristling at the prospect of losing pensions or future jobs on K Street.

The activist push for strict new regulations, well beyond what authors included in the underlying legislation, has come mostly from junior lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“It’s one of these things that turns into a bit of a feeding frenzy,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

One particularly troublesome amendment, as far as members of the upper chamber are concerned, comes from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has proposed that lawmakers who become lobbyists lose their generous federal pensions.

“The language in this amendment is extraordinarily broad,” said Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), a senior member of the GOP conference and a sponsor of the STOCK Act. “The definition of remuneration includes salaries, any payments for services not otherwise identified as salary, such as consulting fees, honoraria and paid authorship.

“As I read the language, the former member of Congress who writes a book would be in danger of forfeiting his or her pension,” she said.

Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.) and Jon Tester (Mont.), two junior Democrats, on Wednesday afternoon filed an amendment that would impose a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists and ban staff from lobbying their former bosses for six years. Bennet and Tester have previously made the case for their bill.

Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Democrats elected in 2006 and 2008, respectively, have also offered a measure that has raised eyebrows. It would require all lawmakers and senior staff to divest of stocks or put their assets in blind trusts.

Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the second-ranking Senate Republican leader, called that proposal “foolish.”

“Why should someone who has worked and accumulated some equity and is investing that in American businesses no longer be able to do that when they’re elected to public office?” he said.

Kyl also panned Paul’s proposal to strip former lawmakers of pensions if they become lobbyists.

“What’s the point of that?” he said. Kyl, who is retiring at the end of the year, noted that former senators are already subject to a two-year post-Congress lobbying ban.

The STOCK Act has drawn amendments that would substantially curb lawmakers’ powers.

Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have proposed a permanent Senate ban on earmarks, a proposal that splits the Senate GOP conference and riles Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has introduced an amendment expressing support for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress.

But while many lawmakers roll their eyes over a proposed restriction they see as draconian, they acknowledge it will be difficult to vote no at a time when public opinion of Congress is at a record low and many voters are sick of the influence of lobbyists and special interests.

“With a lot of these things, our zeal has overcome our good sense, but it’s fine with me, I’ll vote for it,” McCain said of the proposal to require lawmakers to sell stocks or put their wealth in a blind trust.

McCain said he would also support Paul’s proposal to deny pensions to lawmakers turned lobbyists: “It’s fine. I don’t plan on being a lobbyist, so it’s OK with me.”

The 2008 Republican presidential nominee has millions of dollars in personal wealth because of his wife’s inherited fortune. He is also a household name who could earn millions more sitting on corporate boards and/or on the speaking circuit.

But some lesser-known colleagues are privately counting on careers as lobbyists once they retire from the Senate, where the pay — capped at $174,000 for rank-and-file members — is modest by Washington’s standards.

Former Sens. John Breaux (D-La.), Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) are among those who have joined the K Street crowd in recent years.

Unlike most of the bills that come up for votes on the Senate floor, this one has a real chance of passing and becoming law, making votes on amendments that much tougher.

The high stakes have created a procedural logjam that has stalled action on the Senate floor as leaders negotiate in private over which amendments will get votes.

McCaskill said Wednesday she suspected that Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who are both fond of earmarks, would seek to dodge a vote on her amendment.

The STOCK Act unexpectedly gained must-pass status after Democrats raised its profile last month. President Obama called for its passage in his State of the Union address and Reid subsequently announced its consideration on the Senate floor.

Senate Democrats on Monday criticized House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) for blocking a December markup of the STOCK Act in the House Financial Services Committee.

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The White House issued Obama’s announcement more than a month before the Feb. 21 deadline mandated in recent congressional legislation. Aware that the permit process was in danger of dragging on well past the November elections, House Republicans attached the deadline requirement to the payroll tax cut extension in order to force a decision on the issue before it became a political football. Unfortunately, the president’s decision ensured that the project will indeed be delayed – and will indeed remain an election issue.

A congressional effort is already under way to force the president to take another look at the current pipeline permit. This week, Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg announced that he signed on as a sponsor to H.R. 3811, the “Keystone For a Secure Tomorrow Act.” The act, introduced by Texas Congressman Ted Poe, would essentially approve the permit – but it’s a long shot given that the House and Senate remain politically divided, and that any bill that made it through Congress would only land back on Obama’s desk.

The Keystone project aims to link Canadian crude oil fields in Alberta to refineries in the Gulf Coast through a system of pipelines running through nine states. Two of the Keystone pipeline project’s four phases have been completed. Phase three would link a terminal in Cushing, Okla., to Houston and Port Arthur in Texas. Phase four would bring the pipeline through eastern Montana, including a major terminal at Baker.

TransCanada had planned to have the final phases of its $13 billion pipeline up and running by the end of next year.

It still has roughly 1,700 miles and $7 billion to go to complete the project.

In explaining his Jan. 18 decision, Obama said that the delay is needed in order to ensure an adequate assessment of the pipeline’s potential impacts. He was following the recommendation of the State Department, which stated that it had not had enough time to fully review the proposal.

TransCanada is now expected to apply for a new permit with an amended route – one that makes slight adjustments in order to skirt sensitive areas such as the Sandhills in Nebraska. Nebraska’s legislature has been working with TransCanada to adjust the pipeline route in order to resolve the state’s environmental concerns, and Nebraska’s Republican Gov. Dave Heineman – who helped block the project’s progress last fall – is now among those calling on Obama to approve the current permit. The vast majority of the route, after all, is not expected to change.

And certainly, support for the pipeline – especially in the states through which it would pass – is strong. All three of Montana’s congressional delegates are united in their support for the pipeline. And they have good reason to be. The national economy is still floundering and unemployment remains high in much of the country – including western Montana. In fact, there is ample evidence that Montana’s economy has stayed afloat primarily because of the eastern-side energy boom.

But the Treasure State can have its cake and eat it, too. We have vast natural resources – enough to set some aside for energy development, some for wilderness, some for recreation. We keep a steadier economic ship when we seek the balanced use of all our assets.

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Last week, Tester said he supports two constitutional amendments that would allow Congress to regulate campaign spending by corporations and labor unions.

But Rehberg said he doesn’t support the amendment proposals, and even Tester admits they probably won’t pass…

But in a conference call with reporters, Tester said the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission gives corporations and unions the same rights as individuals, and that’s not right.

“This is about giving corporations better rights than a person,” he said, adding, “This is a very poor decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The court found that government attempts to stymie corporate campaign-spending close to elections was a violation of their right to free speech. But the ruling also allows unfettered corporate campaign spending and without any disclosure on who is financing the campaigns.

When asked if Tester was worried about corporate influence on this year’s Senate race in Montana, he said, “You bet I am.”

“They’ve already dropped a million bucks,” he said.

Tester said things will get worse as Election Day nears.

“People will see how bad it really is,” he said.

One thing’s for certain, Tester claimed – “It will make some TV stations rich.”

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The contest for the seat held by Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, is one of the potentially close 2012 races that could ultimately decide whether Democrats maintain control of Congress’ upper chamber.

As such, the battle is attracting attention from outside groups hoping their financial assistance will make a difference for both the first-term Democrat and his Republican challenger, Rep. Denny Rehberg, the state’s sole House member and a former lieutenant governor.

Tester ran as a populist in 2006, beating the then-Senate incumbent, the controversial Republican Conrad Burns, by a mere 3,562 votes out of more than 400,000 cast. That was a wave-election year that favored Democrats, suggesting the depth of the challenge Tester faces in gaining re-election in a state that votes Republican in national elections.

Tester has proposed a constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. In that decision, the high court held that corporations and unions enjoyed free-speech rights that allows them to donate unlimited amounts of money to third party political groups.

On All Things Considered Monday, Tester explained to co-host Melissa Block his opposition to Citizens United and the concerns it raises from his perspective for American democracy.

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“Wait a minute,” I replied. “Don’t you and your friends understand that wilderness only involves the wildest, most remote places where there are no roads?” I explained that the places where we drive on forest roads aren’t roadless lands. They’re not affected in any way by wilderness designations.

Unfortunately, that woman’s misconception isn’t too unusual – judging from letters to the editor that criticize Tester’s bill. This should be no real surprise, because wilderness opponents have always made the deceptive claim that wilderness “locks the public out” of public land.

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Last summer, House Republicans proposed their own EAJA overhaul, which would limit who can request reimbursements and also tracks the money paid out. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., supported that measure.

In an interview on Monday, Tester said EAJA has been blamed for funding environmentalist lawsuits without looking at the full picture of the fund’s uses.

“Especially with Social Security and the Veterans Administration, we just don’t have a lot of facts out there about how the money is being utilized,” Tester said. “We don’t know how it’s impacting agency budgets. I thought it would be a good idea to get more information before we take steps to reform it.”

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But as FJRA gains momentum, opponents appear to be shifting tactics. Because so many Montanans have united around FJRA’s collaborative approach to creating jobs and resolving national forest conflicts, outright opposition has become politically imprudent.

So we now hear proposals to change the forest jobs bill by requiring completion of the logging and thinning before resource-protection provisions take effect. Known as “trigger language,” this suggestion is a red herring — a made-in-Washington poison-pill provision that Congress has rejected time and again as unworkable.

In other words, if you can’t stop FJRA on the merits, attach a provision that would effectively kill it.

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