Mark Begich and Jon Tester at firedoglake

Montana's freshman Senator, Jon Tester defeated Sen. Conrad Burns in 2006. Burns was a senator less tenured than Sen. Ted Stevens, but just as overdue for retirement. Tester was a prominent state legislator who had been serving as President of the Montana Senate when he decided to challenge Burns. One of the hallmarks of Tester's run was the high degree of internet involvement in his campaign. His donor lists, both in the primary race against well-connected state Auditor, John Morrison, and against Burns were quite large, with many people giving small amounts. Tester ran without ties to powerful, Washington DC-based PACs.

Tester went on the web a lot in 2006, participating in hour-long and two-hour-long sessions at sites like DailyKos and firedoglake. In these sessions, Tester would sometimes stay round longer than the session was supposed to last, trying to answer questions that took far more time to write an answer to than one can deliver in a line or so.

Among the things Mark Begich and Jon Tester did together while Jon was in Anchorage, was to go onto firedoglake for an hour, partially to announce that the very progressive netroots fundraising entity, BlueAmerica, was endorsing Mayor Begich's run for the U.S. Senate.

The two were introduced by Jane Hamsher, one of the most audacious netroots pioneers. In the comments, Christy Hardin Smith, another of firedoglake's founders, cited the importance of Tester's backing of Begich:

I think it is fantastic that you are doing this — and wish we had been seeing more of this from other Dems. Collegiality is one thing, but standing in the way of a clear Democratic majority is quite another entirely when we are looking at the significant policy issues that are going to need tackling in the next Congress. Sen. Stevens has used his power in the Appropriations Committee for years to ruthlessly dictate policy and insure payback for anyone who dared to cross him.

During the session, Hamsher announced that Mark has been added to BlueAmerica's rolls.

The all-time Alaska leader for raising money over ActBlue is Diane Benson. In 2006, she raised over $11,000 there, and this cycle has brought in $13,000, a total of $24,000. Jake Metcalfe brought in almost $20,000 before his campaign folded. Ethan Berkowitz has raised about $8,700 there, and Begich almost $8,600. Benson and Metcalfe have seen the most contributions in Alaska for national office in the 2008 cycle from small donors, Berkowitz, the most donations from D.C.-based PACs, and the fewest on a monthly basis, from the netroots community, and from small-check Alaska donors.

The Begich-Tester session at firedoglake was hampered by what apparently was a very tight appearance schedule for the Montana Senator, as the Begich campaign brought him around to several events and to other parts of the state besides Anchorage. Tester had never been here before.

The press conference held by the Begich campaign did not show the Alaska press off at its best. I found the questioners to have very little knowledge of the consequences of Tester's early support for Begich, very little feel for some of the issues that came up in conversation.

Interesting to me in the conference, were references to the perniciousness of candidates relying upon D.C. based PACs and lobbyists for campaign finance, and of Tester's note that he was supported in 2006 by ex-Sen. Max Cleland. Cleland has backed Diane Benson, both in 2006 and 2008. Cleland met briefly with Benson while in Alaska.