Senate race full of twists and turns

Apparently, the U.S. Senate race in Montana will not have a dull moment this year.

Even before the filing deadline last month, there had been considerable fireworks (and campaign advertising) about whether or not Sen. Conrad Burns had close ties to disgraced D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Burns says he doesn't even know Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges, but members of the senator's staff had a close working relationship with the lobbyist and some even took cushy jobs with him. Abramoff has even been quoted as saying, "Every appropriation we wanted [from Burns' committee] we got. Our staffs were as close as they could be."

It was probably that kind of talk which led state Sen. Bob Keenan of Bigfork to decide to challenge his fellow Republican in the June primary. Keenan is a party loyalist, but in the topsy-turvy world of this election, party loyalty might best be served by giving Republicans an alternative to Burns - especially with two months to go before the primary. Thus, if Burns were perchance implicated in any scandal, Republicans would have an alternative candidate waiting in the wings. And if that proves unnecessary, Keenan still gains in statewide name recognition for any future state race.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have their own tightly contested primary and their own political soap opera. Two strong candidates emerged from the field of likely contenders last year - state Senate President Jon Tester and State Auditor John Morrison. Both have been able to raise money, and both have done well in opinion polls head-to-head against Burns, with Morrison having perhaps a small edge.

Last week, many Montanans were shocked to learn, however, that Morrison had troubles of his own. He acknowledged a newspaper's report that he had been involved in an extramarital relationship with a woman in 1998, and that later he had to excuse himself from involvement in an investigation of the woman's fiance for securities fraud.

It will be up to Montanans to decide for themselves what they think of Morrison's original indiscretion and his later decision to admit a conflict of interest and hand off the fraud investigation to an independent subordinate. They also have to put the incident in the context of Morrison's successful tenure as auditor for the past five years.

But, in the meantime, it certainly makes the Senate race much more competitive. Tester has not raised the issue, and probably won't, but his down-home campaign from Big Sandy may offer Democrats a safe alternative as they ponder a fall campaign against Sen. Burns.

If the Democrats hope to exploit Burns's problems by running a "culture of corruption" campaign against him, it will probably be easier if they do not have to worry about personal attacks on their own candidate.

As for the Republicans, they may be wishing for a Morrison victory in the June primary for much the same reason. It may be easier to run against a flawed Morrison than against the flat-topped, square-jawed country-boy Tester.

And waiting in the wings is long-shot Bob Keenan. But if one thing is certain in the race so far, it's this: Don't count anyone out.