NEWS

Sen. Tester's gaffe could haunt him

John S. Adams

HELENA – Sen. Jon Tester's gaffe this month regarding timber sale litigation could have lasting impacts.

Tester, a Democrat, has made forest policy a central focus during his eight years in the Senate. Some say his repeated false statements about the impacts of litigation on U.S. Forest Service timber sales in Montana raise questions about his understanding of the issues he's attempting to legislate.

Washington Post Fact Checker columnist Glenn Kessler on Wednesday gave Tester a "Four Pinocchios" rating for false statements Tester made on public airwaves regarding timber sale ligation in Montana.

In a Feb. 18 Montana Public Radio report about legislation to revive Secure Rural School Act funding, Tester claimed "every logging sale in Montana right now is under litigation. Every one of them."

Members of the media and other interested parties contacted Tester's office almost as soon as he made the claim. Tester's spokeswoman, Marneé Banks, issued a follow-up statement the next day and apologized for the "error" her boss made on the radio.

However, Kessler found that the revised statement, which claimed "nearly half of the awarded timber volume in Fiscal Year 2014 is currently under litigation," also was not true.

After nearly a week of back and forth between Tester's camp and U.S. Forest Service officials, Kessler finally got to the truth of the matter.

According to Kessler's findings, of the "97 timber sales under contact in Montana's national forests," only 14 have active litigation. That's about 14 percent, and a far cry from "every one of them" as Tester claimed. Kessler also found that just 4 percent of timber sales aren't being logged because of litigation.

As to Tester's "correction" after being called out, Kessler found about 10 percent of the total timber volume under contact is impacted by litigation. Nowhere close to the "nearly half" Tester's office claimed in their follow-up statement.

"Given that Tester is the senior senator from Montana, his comments on litigation in Montana's national forests are embarrassingly wrong," Kessler wrote. "In both statements, he was wildly off the mark. He needs to brush up on his facts — and his math — before he opines again on the subject."

David Parker is a Montana State University political scientist and author of the book "Battle for the Big Sky," which chronicles the 2012 U.S. Senate race.

Parker said Tester's gaffe could haunt the senator down the road. Parker said while it isn't on "the level of John Walsh," it could be a serious problem for Tester if he doesn't get a handle on it.

"The fact that you have the Washington Post come out there and give it 'Four Pinocchios' on a statement concerning logging — and they have problems with the second statement — and this is in the area where Jon Tester has spent a long time building a reputation as an honest broker with his forest jobs legislation, this certainly is not good," Parker said.

Tester has made forest policy a marquee issue since taking office in 2007, and he could lose credibility on the issue if he doesn't get a handle on it, Parker said.

James Conner, a blogger and author of the FlatheadMemo.com, on Friday wrote that Tester's 'Four Pinocchios' "casts shadow on his straight shooter reputation."

"He's deeply frustrated and embarrassed by not being able to move his collaborationist backed mandated logging legislation through Congress. And although he's worked with conservationists to advance wilderness protection, he's also shown a mean streak to environmentalists who refuse to embrace an idea that he sees as good," Conner wrote.

Parker said for Tester to move on, he'll have to issue a more sincere apology than the one issued by his staff.

"I think it's very simple: you have a mea culpa," Parker said. "You have to have a press conference, or a sit-down with a journalist and explain exactly what happened and take full responsibility and be done with it."

So far Tester's spokeswoman has apologized in a written statement, but Tester himself has not commented since making the false statements to Montana Public Radio.

Asked via email how Tester squares his statements with the facts laid out in the Washington Post fact check column, Banks responded via email:

"Jon has acknowledged that not every timber sale is under litigation and apologized for his mistake."

Banks said Tester got the information "directly from the Forest Service."

Matthew Koehler, a Missoula-based forest activist who has been highly critical of Tester's forest policy — particularly legislation that mandates logging levels on national forests — said lack of reliable information and political spin have done a disservice to the entire public lands debate in Montana.

Koehler said the Washington Post column was a "fact-check on the entire Montana political establishment, mainstream media, timber industry and big money groups," which he says have repeated misinformation about litigation for years in an attempt to increase public lands logging by limiting science and citizen oversight.

"It's not too much to ask that the government's management of America's national forests be legal, science-based and include processes that are open, inclusive and transparent," Koehler said. "I think it's high time that Montanans start to question much of the public lands logging rhetoric and instead demand that politicians like Tester and Daines focus on ecological, economic and budgetary facts, rather than just a pathetic knee-jerk reaction of blaming the environmentalists."

Koehler points out that under the current farm bill, the Forest Service has the authority to conduct an unlimited number of "streamlined" logging projects — which are "categorically excluded" from the environmental and public input requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act — on 5 million acres of forest land in Montana.

"The problem is that Tester, Daines and Congress never funded the Forest Service to plan any of these new farm bill timber sales," Koehler said. "So with 5 million acres of National Forests in Montana available today for fast-track logging — and only 4 out of 97 current U.S. Forest Service timber sales in Montana halted by litigation — Tester and Daines want the public to believe that timber sale lawsuits from environmentalists are the problem? Give me a break."

Parker said Tester's political rivals are following the situation, which he said is "classic made for TV advertisements."

"Why do people like Jon Tester? Because they trust him," Parker said. "They trust him and they believe him. Now here's an example where an independent fact observer has said, 'Hey, you're wrong on this and the revision was also incorrect.' It is a problem, absolutely."