Helena Independent Record: Editorial: Delegation ready to hear from you
A recent New York Times editorial labeled Sen. Jon Tester as a throwback to a bygone era. One of just two farmers in the U.S. Senate (Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley is the other), a body that used to be overrun by them, Tester is a bit of an outsider in an arena now dominated by career elected officials and shrewd politics.
He sports a flat top. He’s missing fingers on his left hand. He returns each weekend from the bustle of the nation’s capital to tend his Big Sandy organic wheat farm.
Indeed, he’s not what you picture when envisioning Washington, D.C.
Sometimes, though, it’s what a person isn’t that makes him what he is. And in an hourlong editorial board visit with Senator Tester Tuesday, it’s refreshing to see an honest, forthright and jovial elected official who’s as open as the expansive Montana prairie.
It’s not the first time a delegation member has visited our editorial board, of course, and not the first time Tester has weighed in here on topics from appropriations, to the northern border, to the economy, to war, to life back on the farm.
