Jon Tester for U.S. Senate

Wolf Point Herald-News

By PAUL MURRAY

Democratic U.S. senatorial candidate Jon Tester paid a visit to Poplar on Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 22, making a courtesy call at the Fort Peck Reservation Assiniboine and Sioux Tribal Council.

In a Tuesday morning interview with The Herald-News, as he was on his way to the area from Sidney, Tester threw his full support behind the “4 for 2″ proposal to widen Highway 2 from its current two lanes to four lanes in northeastern Montana.

“I know that (state) Senator Sam Kitzenberg (R-Glasgow) and (state) Senator Frank Smith (D-Poplar) both support 4 for 2 and they are right,” Tester said. “I would absolutely support funding for this project in the U.S. Senate.”

Tester agreed with marketing research which indicates that the vast majority of economic growth occurs along four-lane highways.

“This is the sort of infrastructure issue that needs attention, because it lays the groundwork for economic development to happen. It gets things in motion”

When asked, though, if he would support tax breaks for businesses or industries which may choose to locate along a four-lane U.S. 2, Tester demurred.

“The problem with tax breaks is you give them to businesses in one part of Montana, but then what about similar businesses in other parts of Montana that aren’t getting those tax breaks?” he asked. “I’d rather not support giving tax breaks that help businesses in one area at the expense of businesses in another area of Montana.

“I prefer to believe in that expression, if you build it, they will come,” he added. “If you have good highways, trucks and other transportation and businesses have what they need.”

Northeast Montana will not be forgotten about, Tester promised, if he ends up in Washington, D.C.

“Montana is a big state and it’s tough to be everywhere, but I would have my staff get out and meet people,” he said. “We’ve been all over this state.”

Tester emphasized his central Montana roots, in the Big Sandy area, and his lack of D.C. connections as being positives.

“People that have been elected, sometimes they have a tendency when they get out of Montana, to lose focus on Montana,” Tester declared. “Politicians need to make a concerted effort to get out to the rural areas of the state, and we will.”

Tester stressed the several projects already in the works for northeast Montana, as being the primary sources of new area jobs in the immediate future.

“The Fort Peck Rural Water System project, the 4 for 2 project, the northeast Dry Prairie project, all of these will create jobs,” Tester declared. “There’s also a lot of opportunity in energy for Montana, whether it’s wind energy, or biofuel or grain into ethanol. That creates jobs.”

The federal 2007 Farm Bill should contain better language than the 2002 version in terms of providing safety nets for farmers and ranchers, Tester said, with financing for farm and ranch protection possibly coming from loans, better insurance or subsidies.

He added, though, that such protection should not be available for irresponsible purchases of expensive, unneeded farm equipment.

For legitimate investment in alternative types of farming, however, Tester saw the need for greater security, along with providing protection for farmers in Montana’s “boom or bust” agricultural cycles.

“Flexibility for raising different crops, oil seeds that could be converted into biofuel, we need to provide better security for family farms. Food security is very important.”

Tester, a farmer himself, declared that family farms are better at preserving resources for future generations than corporate farms have been.

“We also need better labeling,” Tester added. “We need to know where our food comes from, where it is produced.”

Tester concluded the question-and-answer session with an explanation of his unique haircut, which has been getting increasing attention as his campaign progresses.

“I had a barber in Big Sandy who told me I’d look good with a flattop (haircut),” Tester said. “Plus my father, my uncle and my brother were all bald and they were kidding me about going bald. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and please my barber and the rest of my family at the same time by getting the low-maintenance cut.”

Tester was then off to Poplar, becoming the third federal office-holder or office-seeker to visit the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribal Offices in the past two weeks, following U.S. Senator Max Baucus on Aug. 9 and U.S. House of Representatives candidate Monica Lindeen on Aug. 10.