Thanks Tester for remaining accessible to constituents

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Sen. Jon Tester for remaining accessible to his constituents.

Only about a million people live in Montana, but we’re an enormous state. In fact, from the border of Idaho to the border of North Dakota, it’s a 12-hour drive across Montana. This hasn’t stopped Jon from doing everything he can to travel across the state to meet with the Montanans he represents. If you haven’t met Jon yourself, you almost certainly know someone who has, whether they asked Jon questions at a town hall, talked with him at an agriculture roundtable, or even just ran into him at the hardware store. Did you know Senator Tester always publishes his schedule online so Montanans know exactly what he’s doing and where they might have a chance to speak with him?

This kind of transparency is par for the course when it comes to Jon Tester. Since the day Jon was first elected, he has fought to make government better and fiscally more responsible. He has passed multiple bills cutting down on government waste and Congressional perks, and has returned $3 million of taxpayer dollars from his office budget.

Last year, Jon cosponsored a bill that would prevent lawmakers from commissioning oil paintings — of themselves — and using taxpayer dollars to pay for it. It seems like this would be a no-brainer, but it’s something that has gone on and on for decades until Jon Tester found out about it and tried to fix it.

Jon holds government accountable. It comes from his farmer’s work ethic. He knows, like many other Montana ranchers and farmers, how to cut down on waste and use only what you need. He has taken those lessons with him to Washington — and our government is better for it.

I’ll be supporting Jon this November, and if Montanans want more transparency and ethical leadership in government, they will support Jon too.

Dawn Brennan, Columbia Falls