Montana Senate Race: Who Hates Wolves More?

Does Sen. Jon Tester's disdain for wolves also extend to t-shirts that become Internet memes?<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Wolf_Moon.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Next fall’s Montana Senate race is shaping up to be the most expensive election in the state’s history. Karl Rove’s dark money outfit, Crossroads GPS, is already saturating the airwaves in the state (it’s also going after Elizabeth Warren). The race, pitting incumbent Democrat Jon Tester against longtime Rep. Denny Rehberg (R), could well decide which party controls the Senate. There’s a lot at stake—so naturally, the race has come down to the important question of which candidate hates the endangered western wolf more.

Eli Sanders files a dispatch from Montana and highlights this element of the race:

While in most states you won’t find a Democrat trying to out-hustle a Republican over who got an endangered animal like the Western wolf less federal protection, this, again, is Montana — where a lot of voters see wolves as livestock predators. So when Rehberg, who has a stuffed Canadian Black wolf in his office, suggested he’s the one responsible for the de-listing of American endangered wolves, Tester’s campaign pounced, reminding people that Rehberg’s bill actually didn’t go anywhere in Congress. “The record is clear as to who did what,” Tester told me. “It is absolutely, unequivocally clear. He could not get his bill out of committee. I got my bill signed by the president.”

Boom. Maybe noted coyote-killer Rick Perry is running for the wrong office.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate