Jon Tester, Denny Rehberg Bicker Over Bona Fides In Montana Senate Race

HELENA, Mont. — Denny Rehberg often wears cowboy boots while campaigning for the U.S. Senate, telling stories about his ranching background and bashing the “death tax” and “Obamacare,” characterizations popular with Montana’s rural residents.

To Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, the Republican congressman who wants to take his place is all hat and no cattle.

Describing himself as a “dirt farmer,” Tester says Rehberg hasn’t rounded up his own cattle in years, but has spent his time subdividing and developing what used to be his family’s ranch.

“Building houses and mansion ranching is not ranching,” Tester said at their first debate this summer.

The razor-tight race may come down to who is “more Montana.”

Rehberg’s campaign acknowledges that Tester may spend more of his free time farming, but the challenger says the first-term Democrat’s support for President Barack Obama’s mandate that most everyone buy health insurance runs counter to Montanans’ libertarian streak.

Rehberg cites his long roots in ranching prior to leasing out his land due to the demands of his congressional office. He says managing cows is different from farming and requires a full-time presence.

“Frankly I am sorry for the people of Montana that he is wasting so much time as a U.S. senator talking about what a great farmer he is,” Rehberg said in an interview. “Maybe he ought to spend a little bit more time trying to help get people back to work and expand the economy because that is what I am focused on. I don’t think the people of Montana would particularly want me sitting around the ranch trying to keep the cows in the fence and putting water in front of them and such.”

Each candidate lays claim and blame over who’s the least elite, most authentic and best able to represent the state’s 1 million rural residents in Washington, a city they view with great distrust. Tester’s two predecessors lost their populist appeal and re-election bids after becoming too identified with the city’s Beltway interests.

The race, one of a few that will determine which party controls the Senate in 2013, is drawing millions of dollars in political money from out-of-state interest

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