Conrad Burns

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For other people named Burns, see Burns (disambiguation).

Conrad R. Burns (born January 25, 1935) is only the second Republican to represent Montana in the United States Senate since the passage in 1913 of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Burns was elected to the Senate in 1988, when he defeated incumbent Democrat John Melcher in 1988. The first popularly elected Republican senator from Montana was Zales Ecton, who served a single term from 1947-1953. As he completes his third term, Burns is hence the longest-serving Republican Senator in Montana history.

Senator Burns sits on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and is the chairman of its Subcommittee on the Interior. He is also chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee's Communications subcommittee.

1 Life and career prior to 1995
2 1988, 1994, and 2000 elections
3 Controversial statements
4 Political positions
5 2006 election campaign
6 Controversy over Abramoff scandal
7 External links

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Life and career prior to 1995

Burns was born on a farm near Gallatin, Missouri, to Russell and Mary Frances (Knight) Burns. Graduating from Gallatin High School in 1952, Senator Burns enrolled in the College of Agriculture at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Two years later Burns enlisted in the Marine Corps and was posted to East Asia.

After his military service Burns began working for TWA and Ozark airlines. In 1962 he became a field representative for Polled Hereford World magazine in Billings, Montana. In 1968, he became the first manager of the Northern International Livestock Expo, beginning his career in radio and television broadcasting, reporting on agricultural market news.

In 1975, Burns founded four radio stations known as the Northern Ag Network, which grew to serve 31 radio and TV stations across Montana and Wyoming when he sold it in 1986.

Burns began his career in politics when he was elected to the Yellowstone County Commission in 1986. He served on that commission for two years before running for the U.S. Senate in 1988.

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1988, 1994, and 2000 elections

Burns was first elected as a United States Senator from Montana in 1988, when he defeated Democratic incumbent John Melcher in a close race, 51% to 48%.

In 1994, the year of the Republican Revolution, Burns was re-elected in a landslide, 62% to 38%, over Jack Mudd.

In 1988, Burns had campaigned on the promise of being a two-term senator; he ignored questions about the issue while campaigning for his third term in 2000. He faced well-financed farmer Brian Schweitzer, whom Burns defeated by 51% to 47%. (That year, George W. Bush carried Montana 58% to 33% in the race for President.) In 2004, Schweitzer was elected Governor of Montana.

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Controversial statements

Template:NPOV-section In late February 2006, Burns said President Bush has a skull of "solid granite," criticizing Bush's stubbornness in his continued support for transferring some U.S. port operations to a company owned by a United Arab Emirates government. A day after Burns made the remark at the Hill County Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day Dinner, spokesman Matt Mackowiak said the reference to granite was not meant as an insult. "He says the same thing about his son," Mackowiak said. "It's a little joke he likes to use."

The Helena Independent Record, reporting on that incident, noted that "The senator has drawn attention previously for his choice of words." [1]. Columnist Bob Herbert was more harsh, saying Burns is "an accident that happens again and again and again. [2]

In 1994, Burns told the editorial board of the Bozeman Chronicle that when asked by a constituent, "How can you live back there in Washington, DC with all those niggers?" he replied, "[It's] a hell of a challenge." When he was asked about the use of the racial slur, he said: "I don't know. I never gave it much thought."

On February 17, 1999, while at a meeting of the Montana Implement Dealers Association in Billings, Montana, Burns referred to Arabs as "ragheads". Burns later apologized.

In 2000, he offended a Billings woman when he pointed to her nose ring and asked her what tribe she was from.

On December 21, 2005, Burns stated that "We've got to remember that the people who first hit us in 9/11 entered this country through Canada." This claim, which is false and is directly contradicted by the findings of the 9-11 Commission, drew criticism from those questioning Burns' grasp of domestic security. Canadian ambassador Frank McKenna demanded an apology from Burns. [3]

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Political positions

Burn's detractors point out that Burns also has a legislative history of supporting measures and bills to reduce American Indian tribal sovereignty. For example, Burns co-sponsored a bill with then-Washington Republican Senator Slade Gorton that would have required tribes to waive sovereignty rights such as immunity from lawsuits, in addition to meeting means testing, before they could receive federal funds. He has also sponsored legislation that some say would overturn treaties by eliminating Indian jurisdiction of reservation land owned by non-Indians.

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2006 election campaign

Template:Main Because of his narrow win in 2000, the Democratic takeover over Montana's state government in 2004, and polls in 2005 putting his support in the state at around 36%, Burns has been singled out as one of the most vulnerable senators facing re-election in 2006.

His Democratic opponents currently include Montana State Senate President and organic farmer Jon Tester, former state representative Paul Richards, Montana State Auditor John Morrison, and Clint Wilkes.

Survey USA currently has him as having the lowest net approval rating of any US Senator.[4] It states his disapproval rating is 9 points higher than his approval rating as of January.

In April 2006, Burns was selected by Time as one of "America's Five Worst Senators."

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Controversy over Abramoff scandal

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While the chair of the Interior Subcommittee on Appropriations, Burns received over $136,000 in campaign contributions directed by scandal-plagued lobbyist Jack Abramoff.[5]. In 2001, Abramoff flew two of Burn's Senate staffers, Will Brooke and Ryan Thomas, to the Super Bowl in Miami.

In 2003, attempts by the two senators from Michigan to get money for a school of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, an Abramoff client and one of the wealthiest tribes in the country, had failed. The Bureau of Indian Affairs said the tribe's school wasn't eligible because it was not part of the bureau's system. The tribe, and Abramoff, its lobbyist, then began working with Burns.

In the summer of 2003, Burns and his counterpart, the chairman of the House Interior Subcommittee, sent a letter to the Interior Department, arguing the Saginaw Chippewa's case. But the department and the bureau remained firm in their refusal. In late October of 2003, just before the final vote on the Interior appropriations bill, Burns inserted a paragraph - an earmark - in the bill's conference report. It lifted previous restrictions and directed that the Saginaw Chippewa Indians be given $3 million for their tribal school. Within two months of the earmark, Burn's chief of staff, Will Brooke, went to work for Abramoff at the lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig. [6]

After initially claiming credit for the appropriation Burns subsequently denied knowledge of it, "A lot of things happened that I didn't know about. It shouldn't have happened, but it did."

In December 2005, a leader of a tribe which gave $22,000 in campaign contributions to Burns in 2002 stated that they had done so solely at the request of Abramoff and believed the senator was part of “Abramoff's group.” [7]. In a 2006 Vanity Fair article, Abramoff was quoted as saying, "Every appropriation we wanted from Senator Conrad Burns' committee we got."

When possible, Burns has returned contributions to the tribes where they originated. His attempt to make a $111,000 donation to the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council was rejected by the council, who said the money was tainted because it originally came from Abramoff and his clients. [8]

On April 15, 2006 Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn made headlines when he said that he expected one Senator to "go to prison" for corruption along with at least six Republican Congressmen. [9]

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