Montana Election Results: Burns Concedes Race to Tester

By Courtney Lowery, 11-09-06

	Caption: ABOVE: Ian Marquand interviews Jon Tester, who declared victory the election over Sen. Conrad Burns just moments before the President's speech at 11:30 a.m. MIDDLE: Sen. Burns Wednesday Morning with his granddaughter in Billings. Photo by Pete Talbot BOTTOM: Jon Tester prepares for an appearance early Wednesday on "Montana This Morning" on the NBC affiliate station in Great Falls, Montana. The Host is Cecile Juliet. He also appeared on the Today show. Photo by Mark Maher.

Updated: 1:30 p.m. MST

Democrat Jon Tester has offiically won -- in final numbers and with the nod of his opponent -- the U.S. Senate race in Montana. By defeating Republican incumbent Conrad Burns, Tester, along with Democrat Jim Webb in Virgina tipped the scale of power in the Senate to the Democratic party.

Burns conceded Thursday morning, saying in a statement to the Associated Press, "We fought the good fight and we came up just a bit short. We've had a good 18 years and I am proud of my record."

Tester credited his razor-thin win to the largely grassroots effort Montanans put up for him.

"It was a lot of Montanans, literally thousands of Montanans, on the ground, getting my message out, helping us at every corner, and on a volunteer basis," Tester said in a phone interview.

Results from the Montana Secretary of State's office were finalized a little after 1 p.m. Thursday and gave Tester a 2,644-vote win over Burns, which was just outside the margin that would allow a recount. Final numbers are:

Jon Tester: 198,200
Conrad Burns: 195,556
Stan Jones (Libertarian): 10,324

"We're very excited about the results," Tester spokesman Matt McKenna said Thursday morning. "Montanans are ready for change and Jon Tester is ready to roll up his sleeves and go to work."

Tester said first and foremost, the focus is making sure the transition goes smoothly. "Senator Burns called me today and wished me the best and offered to help and we'll hope to utilize that," he said.

Burns had earlier refused to concede, saying he would not until all votes are counted. McKenna said Burns called Tester's cell phone at 10:49 Thursday morning to concede.

We waited all night Tuesday for the ballots to be re-counted in Yellowstone County (a reported late-night computer glitch), and results from Gallatin County were also very late due to long lines of last-minute registrants in Bozeman. By about 8 a.m., Tester's lead was down to about 1,700. But the final boost came from more returns coming in the Democratic stronghold of Silver Bow County, where Tester picked up 2,797 votes as they trickled in late Wednesday morning. The AP had said they would wait for those ballots before making a call.

On the Today show Tuesday morning, Tester said the race didn't come down to one issue. Instead, it was health care, Iraq, energy and "taking Montana values back" to Washington D.C. that brought voters to the polls.

Bowen Greenwood, the communications director for Secretary of State Brad Johnson said if the margin is less than one-quarter of one percent, Burns could have petitioned for a recount and the state and counties would pay for the recount. If the margin were greater than that -- up to a half of one percent (about 2,020 votes here) -- Burns could still petition, but would have to post a bond to pay for the recount.

The final margin was .65 of one percent of the vote. A recount would have been allowed at .5 of a percent. Burns was just less than 400 votes away from recount territory.

Meagher County, a small county in Central Montana, was the last to report. Burns won there 522 to 272. There are still provisional ballots to be counted by Monday. Total, Greenwood said 1,600 provisional ballots were cast. In Missoula County -- Tester's biggest stronghold -- there were 886 provisional ballots.

Turnout statewide was roughly 62 percent, Greenwood said. That's better than years past but "not quite what I had hoped," Greenwood said.

In Yellowstone County, Burns is showed a 50-percent lead to Tester's 47 percent. Burns picked up 29,203 votes to Tester's 27,981 there. Billings is often thought of as Montana's hinge city. As goes Billings, as goes the state, is what pundits say. In the straggling Gallatin County, the vote came down to Tester leading Burns by just 142 votes.

In 2000, when Schweitzer challenged Burns, Gallatin County voted for Burns 51 percent to 45 percent. But, many predicted the turnout in Bozeman would tilt Tester's way this time around. In Yellowstone County in 2000, 51 percent went to Burns and 48 went to Schweitzer.

Tester at one point had a 10-point lead early in the night, with partial thanks to a big win in Missoula County, grabbing 64 percent of the vote. He picked up 29,000 votes in Missoula County alone. Of counties with all the votes in, he finally won big in Silver Bow and in Lewis and Clark (final results just came in and he picked up a few new votes). He also won in the more rural counties like Bighorn, Blaine, Park, Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Hill, Deer Lodge and Glacier. Final results show Tester losing, however, in his home county of Chouteau. Burns ended up with a 57 vote ad1,345 votes to Tester's 1,288.

The final numbers came in early Wednesday morning for Cascade County, where the Tester headquarters are, and with 100 percent counted, the two candidates are tied there with 49 percent. Tester took 14,947 votes to Burns' 14,789. Lake County, in the Flathead Valley, also came in early Wednesday morning and went to Tester by 138 votes.

Most of the rural counties -- including those on the Hi-Line and in Central Montana -- predictably went to Burns, including Liberty, Teton, Pondera, Sweet Grass, Golden Valley and Musselshell. Total, Burns won 41 counties outright so far, many of them comprising what Burns has always held as his base. The returns came in early Wednesday morning for Flathead County and Burns got another large win there with 58 percent to Tester's 38 percent. That win picked him up a hefty 14,000 votes. He also just took Fergus County.

Tester won 15 counties outright. They've tied in percentage count in Gallatin County, but Burns had a slight lead there in vote count.

CNN has a handy map of the counties and which way they're going.

At the Heritage Inn in Great Falls, where Tester supporters had gathered Tuesday night, the scene was one of confidence. Tester told the crowd it was going to be a long night still, but "It's going to be worth the wait," he said.

Governor Brian Schweitzer was on stage at Tester headquarters as well and gave a rather manic victory speech, even promising all Montana school kids a pass for being late to school Wednesday. Of course Tester hadn't won yet, but the Governor indicated his own analysis showed that his fellow Dem was on the way to victory.

In Billings, as Pete Talbot reported, the crowd was thinning late Tuesday night, but Burns supporters were optimistic, especially with Billings and Yellowstone County left to count.

Talbot reported Wednesday morning that the mood was somber at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. Although Burn’s campaign staff wasn't ready to concede, the Senator seemed philosophical about the election.

"At seventy-one, maybe it’s time to slow down," he told one supporter, "Life goes on."

Tester says he did get a little sleep Tuesday night, but was up very early Wednesday morning to appear on camera and do interviews. New West Photojournalist Mark Maher has been following Tester. Wednesday morning, when asked on the Today show what his day looked like, he quipped, "I'll probably be doing a lot of this."

Elsewhere on the Montana ballot the results look like this:

The Associated Press projected a win early for Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg over Democrat Monica Lindeen in the U.S. House Race. The close-to-final results in that race were:

Rehberg: 174,826 votes, 59 percent
Lindeen: 115,443 votes, 39 percent

In the Public Service Commission race:

Democrat Ken Toole was eking out a hair-thin win in Montana's District 5 Public Service Commission race over Republican rival Mike Taylor. With all precincts reporting, Toole netted 59,876 votes to 59,823 for Taylor, a whopping 50.05 percent of the total votes cast.

A recount in this race is likely.

On the ballot measures:

C43: Change the name of state auditor to insurance commissioner:
For: 84,802 votes
Against: 15,4915 votes

I-151: Raise the state minimum wage to the greater of either $6.15 an hour or the federal minimum wage plus cost-of-living annual adjustment:
For: 187,477
Against: 66,681

I-153: To prohibit certain state officials and staff from becoming lobbyists within 24 moths after leaving state government.
For: 185,613
Against: 60,970 [End of article]