Jon Tester

Looks like he has a comfortable lead w/ 83% of the votes accounted for.

Especially since everyone was conceding victory w/ 30% of the votes accounted for w/ slim margins last night.

imalive wrote:

I'm expecting a shout out in his acceptance speech

Hope so!

YAY!!!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is back in town after the election to find a way around automatic tax increases and spending cuts in January. But first, lawmakers are dealing with 41 polar bear carcasses.

In its first roll call since September, the Senate voted 92-5 on Tuesday to debate a bill to ease restrictions on hunters and fishermen and allow 41 U.S. hunters to bring home polar bear carcasses trapped in Canada due to a ban on trophy imports.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., immediately moved to block Republicans from amending the bill, potentially stalling further action on the bill for days.

Republicans had blocked the bill before the election, fearing that passage would boost the re-election prospects of the bill’s Democratic sponsor, Montana Sen. Jon Tester. Tester ultimately won re-election, narrowly defeating Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg.

The idea was that the bill would pass easily postelection. Reid said it was “one of the most popular bills” the Senate had considered in the last session.

“I just can’t imagine why we’re still trying to refight an election that took place a week ago,” he said.

Tester’s bill combines 19 measures favorable to outdoorsmen. In addition to dealing with the polar bear hides, it would allow more hunting and fishing on federal lands, let bow hunters cross federal land where hunting isn’t allowed, encourage federal land agencies to cooperate with state and local authorities to maintain shooting ranges, exclude ammunition and tackle from federal environmental laws that regulate lead, boost fish populations and protect animal habitat. A similar bill passed in the House earlier this year.

The polar bear provision would allow the 41 hunters — two are from Tester’s home state— who killed polar bears in Canada just before a 2008 ban on polar bear trophy imports took effect to bring the bears’ bodies across the border. The hunters involved were not able to bring the trophies home before the Fish and Wildlife Services listed them as a threatened species.

The bill has bipartisan support and is backed by the National Rifle Association and the National Wildlife Federation. The White House said Tuesday that the Obama administration also supports the bill.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

It makes me sick too.

Im ashamed I gave this guy $10 to enter some PJ contest.

what the cuss happened to the rest of this thread!? ... was it another thread we talked about how this issue would prevent some of us from voting for tester? ...

Sounds like a Hell of a guy....

lukin2006 wrote:

polaris_x wrote:

what the cuss happened to the rest of this thread!? ... was it another thread we talked about how this issue would prevent some of us from voting for tester? ...

This thread...

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=198752&hilit=jon+tester

thanks man! ... i thought i was in a twilight zone episode! ...

Besides the above, another thing worth bearing in mind is that there is a very big difference between sport hunting and hunting for food. I'm not making an argument for hunting- like I said, it's not my thing. I eat very little meat and even then mostly poultry. I don't even eat fish which is (or was) the healthiest form of meat because the oceans are over-fished and polluted and fish farming is ecologically unsound (no time to explain that here but it's worth looking into). That said, there really is a difference between wealthy urban sports hunters and people who hunt to stock up protein for the winter. Teddy Roosevelt is often hailed as an early environmentalist but keep in mind that he wanted wild spaces preserved so that he and his wealthy cronies had places to sport hunt. I seriously doubt that is what Tester is advocating for. I can't prove that here but from what I've read it would make sense to me and it at least makes sense to look further into this whole issue before passing judgement.

Also keep in mind that there is a big difference between "industrial tourism" in natural place which ruins all but ruins them- Yosemite being a key example- and the creation of wilderness. I highly suspect expansion of wilderness is a key issue for Tester- one I'm all in favor of.