U.S. Senator Turned Out?

Voters in Montana may have turned out three-term Sen. Conrad Burns (R), electing state senator Jon Tester by a 49% to 48% margin, or just 1,743 votes. As a member of the Senate’s Communications Subcommittee, Burns has been a key supporter of major public safety legislation over his 18 years of Senate service, including E911 funding, VoIP/E911 implementation and radio interoperability funding. Burns was also a founding member of the E9-1-1 Caucus, a working Congressional consensus-building forum to strengthen public safety communications infrastructures across the country. Other chairs include Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), who was re-elected on Tuesday, and Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and John Shimkus (R-IL). The results of the Montana and Virginia Senate races were still too close to call as of Wednesday morning. Democrats gained four seats in the Senate, and the results of the Montana and Virginia Senate races will determine which political party has a majority in the Senate.