He’s got 49,000 likes on his Facebook page.
Pretty good…4.6% of Montana’s population.
It’s when we put that 4.6% number out there that you really get an idea how unpopular Jon is.
Here’s another way to look at it:
Boy…that ain’t a pretty picture.
81% of this guy’s donations come from out-of-state…are you fucking kidding me?
I felt I needed some answers, so I decided to call up Tester.
He has 5 offices in Montana that I could call, and I started with the Billings office (406-252-0550).
A young man answered, and when I told him that I was interested in Jon’s fundraising – mainly the fact that he’s raised 81% of his donations out-of-state – I was given a Helena number to call.
(406-442-9520) – I guess this is Tester’s campaign HQ number. I was assured it’s not the MT Dem HQ number.
So I gave it a call.
Went about 4 rings…and then a woman picked up and said…”Montana Democratic Party, this is Nancy.”
Whoa…fuck…are you kidding me? Is that Nancy Keenan answering the phone?
Where are all the out-of-state staffers?
And what the fuck?!? I thought I was calling Jon Tester’s campaign HQ…not the MT Dem HQ.
Guess not.
I was so startled by the fact that Nancy had answered the phone that I said…”whoa – wrong number,” and hung up.
I decided to go outside and have a smoke and think about this. A few minutes later I came back inside and called up the number again.
All I got was the answering machine. I called again…going with finance director Trent Bolger’s extension.
406-442-9520 ext 101
No one picked up, so I called again…this time trying for Nancy Keenan.
No answer, just the machine.
Damn…I shouldn’t have hung up!
Anyways, I went back to the Tester offices. Next up was Bozeman (406-586-4450).
A man answered, and when I told him I wanted to talk about Jon’s fundraising…he said I’d need to talk to the campaign, and he put me on hold so he could get the number…then about a minute later he came back and told me that I had to email them.
It was info@jontester.com or something like that.
After that I decided to give the Glendive office a call (406-365-2391). Would they give me the phone number or the email?
All I got was the answering machine. Next up was the Kalispell office (406-257-3360).
Answering machine there as well. I gave one more shot – the Missoula office (406-728-3003).
I got a woman on this one, and she again gave me that Helena number to call. She also mentioned that the campaign was in the midst of moving from Helena to Billings. When I asked why the campaign was doing this, she said she couldn’t say.
So I tried to call Helena again.
Got the machine again. This time I tried dialing ‘0’…but that got me just another person’s answering machine.
Well, for the most part…no one wants to talk.
But maybe Sarah Dean would want to talk. I looked her up on Google, found her website, and…no phone number.
Well, fuck.
Whole lotta nothing on this Wednesday morning a few days before Christmas.
I tried Helena one more time, again going with Nancy Keenan’s extension.
This time I got her.
I said I was interested in Tester’s fundraising…and she told me that this is not her purview, it’s the campaign’s.
When I mentioned that I’d called several of Tester’s regional offices, and that they’d all given me the number for Helena…she told me that Tester’s campaign staff was travelling from Kalispell to Helena today and that they wouldn’t be available until later.
I pressed Nancy on the 81% out-of-state donation number. She said she has nothing to do with this – I need to talk to the campaign.
When I asked about the campaign moving from Helena to Billings, she said this was correct. When I asked why, she mentioned something about wanting to be closer to that part of eastern Montana.
Smart move by Tester. Anyways…I didn’t get a whole lot, nor did I expect to.
We know most of the Dem HQ staff is out for the holidays, and it seems that much of Tester’s office staff is as well.
Who knows…maybe they don’t get to work until 10 AM.
Anyways, we saw ID the other day list all the numbers for Daines’ offices in an attempt to get us all to call them and complain to the office staff that the tax cuts are bad.
When we try to call Tester, however, we get nothing.
I was just wondering why 81% of his campaign donations come from out-of-state.
No one I spoke with wanted to talk about that. A couple weeks ago I was banned from ID for stating that 81% number, and they actually changed their website because of that comment.
Yes…Tester’s fundraising – most of which takes place out-of-state – is a big no-no.
Just don’t talk about it. Actually…just don’t talk about anything that has to do with Jon.
Just do your duty and vote for him, alright…and don’t give us any shit in the process.