Burns trailing

HELENA – Democrat Jon Tester took an early lead over GOP U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns in preliminary results Tuesday night.

Burns was in Billings to see if he could survive his toughest re-election bid yet; Tester awaited returns in Great Falls.

With 44 percent of precincts reporting, Tester had 94,761 votes, or 53 percent, and Burns had 79,884 votes, or 45 percent. Libertarian Stan Jones had 4,194 votes, or 2 percent.

The Burns campaign said they believe big turnout in Republican precincts would help them.

Burns, with a hoarse voice from the final days of campaigning, greeted supporters around 10 p.m. and then sat down to watch results on a big screen television.

“It’s going to be a long night, boys,” Burns told one group of well-wishers.

Tester watched results roll in with his family – including his wife, Sharla, his 86-year-old mother Helen and his three children – in a cramped hotel room next to the ballroom where exuberant supporters waited.

Tester predicted a win.

“Huge turnout helps me, and attests to the fact that both parties did a good job” at turning out the vote, he said.

Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, in Great Falls with Tester, predicted a win for the Big Sandy farmer because “all the things we’ve done in the last few years have given Democrats a better brand name.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, also waiting with Tester for returns, said “Montanans want someone they are proud of” – a jab at the so-called GOP “culture of corruption.”

Burns called in last-minute visits from GOP big guns including the president and vice president, hoping to give him the boost he needed against Tester.

Burns, 71, who was first elected in a 1988 upset as the folksy, backslapping Washington outsider, now finds himself as one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents. His ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his own verbal gaffes – including an incident this summer when he cursed at firefighters at the airport in Billings – have left him with some of his lowest approval ratings of any election.

His race against Tester has been one of the most closely watched this year, with Democrats hoping Burns’ own troubles, coupled with President Bush’s low approval ratings, would translate into Democratic gains in Congress.

Most polls in the final weeks of the campaign indicated the race too close to call. But Burns continued to garner less than 50 percent support, typically a big sign of trouble for an incumbent.