Populist Jon Tester Scores Huge Win Against D.C. Dems.....

The winds of change - they are a-blowin’ hard out here in the heartland, no matter how much Washington, D.C. pretends they aren’t. Tonight, in a major upset, populist Democratic State Senate President Jon Tester crushed his primary opponents, becoming the Democratic nominee against vulnerable incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT). Tester, a farmer from Big Sandy, ran against the Washington Establishment, ignoring those who said he couldn’t beat State Auditor John Morrison (D) - the candidate that Democratic Party powerbrokers in Washington tried to anoint.

In fairness, I think both Tester and Morrison are good Democrats. But, as I saw when I was at Tester’s announcement speech last year, and I learned in talking with Tester during the campaign, this is a guy who clearly and unabashedly represents the populist wing of his party (I tried as best as I could to publicly stay out of the primary out of deference to the state party that didn’t want to further enflame the already divisive primary battle). His victory will likely send yet more shockwaves through the increasingly insulated and isolated Democratic Establishment in Washington.

That Establishment has either refused to take basic, concrete positions on the key issues of the day like Iraq, or worse, has high-profile factions publicly insulting middle-class voters, such as when former Clintonites on Wall Street insulted those Democrats who are trying to reform America’s sellout trade policy.

http://www.davidsirota.com/

Now, when it comes to actually winning a race against a Republican opponent...not so much. :-(

He's somebody a Dem would actually want to vote for in the first place. Plus, he's facing a weak incumbent and he's not afraid to go on offense, unlike his primary opponent.

I'm glad Tester won, but Sirota and his DC establishment bullshit is a joke. If Morrison hadn't run into his own corruption problems, this could well have gone the other way. I wonder what Sirota is going to say when those same DC Dems pour money into the state to help Tester beat Burns.

the affair seriously hurt Morrison.

after the affair broke. Thank Goddess the affair and ethics scandal broke with enough time BEFORE the primary for voters to reevaluate the two candidates.

The DC Establishment is about keeping their cushy jobs at the expense of rank-and-file Democrats.

change is hard even for the party that is most likely to support change.

Busby makes a gaffe and the DC Dems are criticized for not helping her fight back. Morrison has an old affair and nothing unethical actually proven, and the DC Dems are criticized for not dumping him.

Morrison and Tester both had a number of career politicians endorsing them. Montana Democrats asked themselves a simple question, which candidate will appeal to the Burns voters needed to win in Nov. Morrison's scandal did him in. It had nothing to do with DC establishment or much of anything else. Tester is the one who can pick up eastern MT votes, period.

The reason progressives keep losing is because they never understand what it is that motivates Democrats to vote in the first place.

Tester vs. Burns: The Quick and Dirty Number Sifting
http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/9081/C8/L8

Jon Tester's win over John Morrison last night for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate race will no doubt be painted, nationally and locally, as a win for the populist, rural vote and the man-of-the-people candidate who will send a message to the D.C. Democrats on how to win in red states and follow in the pragmatic footsteps of Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

And, those characterizations might very well be valid. But what do the numbers show? A quick and dirty sifting with some unscientific observations:

Tester's win was largely due to his campaign's work mobilizing voters (mostly young ones) in Montana's urban cores. He tapped a group of well-connected young Democrats and it proved very successful -- especially in Missoula. The second-largest city in the state gave Tester a huge majority -- 76.37 percent to Morrison's 21.98 percent. And, talking about mobilization: The last similar primary, in 2002, brought out just 16 percent of registered voters in Missoula. This year, almost 27 percent turned out.

Surprisingly, Tester's next most supportive base was in Lewis and Clark County -- which includes Morrison's hometown of Helena. Tester won 72.03 percent in Lewis and Clark to Morrison's 26.3 percent.

In addition to Tester's effective mobilization strategy, the numbers in these two counties also likely reflect the Morrison affair debacle: Missoula is where most of the news buzzed around the Missoula Independent story that challenged Morrison's handling of a securities fraud case involving the husband of his one-time mistress. In Helena, the rumor had been floating around for sometime before finally hitting the fan in the Lee State Bureau's story.

In Cascade County, Tester got 65.83 percent of the vote, which was a given, considering that's where his camp's HQ and his barber are.

SNIP

Seems Tester had the better voter mobilizing organization.

And which has absolutely nothing to do with anybody voting against the DC establishment. Morrison screwed up, Tester had the organization in place to take advantage. He's served for years in Helena and had a lot of support from state Dems. It's not like he was a nobody who rode out of the Bear Paws on a white horse.

It couldn't have hurt that he and Jeff Ament are friends either. Had I known that, I'd have called this for Tester at the gate. And I like Tester, he's the one I would have voted for myself.

...did the DC Dems align themselves with Morrison, or not?

And no, not that I can see. The outcome of this election had nothing to do with DC Dems.

to campaign against mat gonzalez for mayor and supported newsome-newsome won-god i hate the dem establishment