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MSSA information about Jon Tester, candidate for the U.S. Senate. Jon Tester served in the Montana Senate, in the 2005 Session as President of the Senate. MSSA had two important bills moving through the Legislature in 2005, HB 693 (about self defense) and HB 366 (about Montana-made firearms). Both bills passed out of the Montana House and were assigned in the Senate to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee tabled both bills. MSSA asked friendly senators for motions on the Senate floor to forcibly extract each bill from committee for discussion and a vote before the full Senate. Jon Tester voted AGAINST giving both of these bills a fair hearing before the full Senate. He voted to keep these bills dead and bottled up in committee, against the express wishes of MSSA. In April, just after the candidate filing deadline, MSSA sent candidate questionnaires to all candidates for U.S. Senate. Libertarian Stan Jones and Republican Conrad Burns immediately completed and returned their candidate questionnaires to MSSA. Jon Tester never completed and returned his MSSA candidate questionnaire. Just after Tester had won his nomination in the Primary Election, MSSA president Gary Marbut called Jon, to brief him about MSSA issues pending in Washington. Before the briefing was complete, Tester asked to be excused so he could field another phone call, and promised to call Marbut back soon. Marbut never received a return phone call from Tester. In mid-October, MSSA emailed a formal request to all U.S. Senate candidates asking them to vow to never support any gun control, under any conditions. Burns and Jones responded immediately with very positive responses. (See the questions posed and the Burns response at http://www.marbut.com/mssa.) Tester did not respond. Based on all information available, MSSA determined to endorse Senator Burns for reelection on October 26, 2006. MSSA sent out a statewide news release to news media and MSSA members on October 26th announcing the MSSA endorsement. MSSA scheduled a news conference for October 27th with Senator Burns, Senator Craig (Idaho) and Senator Stevens (Alaska) in Missoula to formally announce the MSSA endorsement. Mid-day on October 27th, the Tester campaign finally provided the first information to MSSA concerning Tester's positions on the right to keep and bear arms - too late. Later in October, the Tester campaign began mailing and showing on television pictures of Tester looking like a hunter, with a shotgun, wearing hunting clothes, and asserting to support hunters. Subsequent research with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks revealed that Jon Tester has not purchased a Montana hunting license in the last 15 years. MSSA views this effort as disingenuous, at best. One other issue has affected the MSSA view of Jon Tester as a potential U.S. Senator. Tester has demonstrated that he can be pressured to play politics with gun issues, witness his votes against HB 693 and HB 366 in the 2005 Legislature. Tester will allow himself to be pushed by campaign handlers to impersonate a hunter when he is not a hunter. The dominant non-Montana influence in Tester's Senate campaign has been Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), who is known to aggressively lead every anti-gun effort in the U.S. Senate. MSSA is beyond concerned that a Jon Tester who will go along with pressure to vote against gun bills in Montana, and to impersonate a hunter, should end up representing Montana in the U.S. Senate while owing huge favors to and being susceptible to influence from Senator Charles Schumer. Tester has failed to provide information about his positions on guns in a timely manner, has been persuaded in the Montana Senate to vote against important pro-gun bills, tries to fool Montana sportsmen with imagery of himself in hunting costume, and owes huge favors to Senator "Gun Control" Schumer if elected. MSSA does not see this history as good credentials to represent the gun owners and hunters of Montana in the U.S. Senate. MSSA