By JC

James Conner over at Flathead Memo has a nice analysis of polling numbers in the Tester/Rehberg race. He also mentions that Tester is leading the money battle:

“…Tester’s trailing in the polls while leading in campaign contributions suggests that something fundamental is amiss with his campaign.”

It just takes a quick trip over to Open Secrets to see who has been funding Jon Tester’s Senate campaign. In the top 20 list of contributors to his campaign, outside of #1 being the LCV, the rest are a motley crew of bankers, PR flaks, lawyers and lobbyists.

Something fundamentally amiss? Look no further than the businesses represented by his individual donors:

1 League of Conservation Voters $61,982

2 Thornton & Naumes $45,600

3 JPMorgan Chase & Co $45,000

4 Visa Inc $33,500

5 First Interstate BancSystem $29,000

6 WPP Group $26,000

7 Pederson Group $24,700

8 Comcast Corp $23,750

9 Wells Fargo $23,500

10 Cauthen, Forbes & Williams $20,800

11 Akin, Gump et al $20,732

12 Kelso & Co $20,000

13 TCF Financial $17,969

14 Patton Boggs LLP $17,500

15 Credit Union National Assn $17,000

16 US Bancorp $16,200

17 AFLAC Inc $16,000

18 Citigroup Inc $15,500

19 Williams Kherkher $15,250

20 Bergman, Draper & Frockt $15,150

31 American Express $12,500

33 Goldman Sachs $12,300

47 Bank of America $10,000

What’s amiss is that Senator Tester has spent his time in D.C. following in Max Baucus’ footsteps learning how to pander to Wall Street and other corporate interests to fluff his campaign coffers.

Of course his poll numbers are lagging. He’s representing the wrong constituency. As a contrast, Denny Rehberg’s top 20 list of contributors doesn’t contain a single Wall Street Bank.

What does candidate Tester expect his poll numbers to reflect, when his primary campaign contributors come from the constituency most detested by democrat and independent voters?