I know U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. I did my best to help elect him for both of his senatorial campaigns in the past. He is affable, poised, gregarious, articulate, a good public speaker, a good fund-raiser, and charismatic. It will be difficult for any new Democrat candidate to defeat him in the next Democratic primary campaign in 2018.

However, Jon no longer likes me and refers to me and my kind as “lunatic fringe environmentalists” because we object to his lack of compassion for wildlife as he chases votes of hunters and trappers and disavows the Endangered Species Act, which all results in great danger of extinction for grizzly bears and wolves and others from delisting from the Endangered Species List and subsequent trophy hunting. Furthermore, Jon chases votes of coal miners by promoting the mining of “dirty coal” in Montana, despite its contribution to global warming, resulting in the soon to be great mass extinction of humans and wildlife on Earth. Lastly, Jon promotes the Canadian tar sands oil Keystone XL pipeline, which will transport very toxic and explosive oil running under Montana lands, and contribute to even greater global warming than ordinary oil.

For this reason, I advise contenders for Tester’s Senate seat next year to run on a platform of being a real, avid promoter of conservation; advocate for wildlife; and Earth naturalist. Do not run against Tester on his terms or you will lose your time and money. Find that strong contrast between you and Tester that will bring out the 30,000 Montana environmentalists who have abandoned the Democratic Party and are looking for their champion to vote for.

If Jon Tester prevails anyway and wins the Democratic primary, then my advice to Republicans selecting a representative to oppose him, through their primary election process, in the general election is to elect a true, real, Teddy Roosevelt conservationist representative of your party. After all, Tester is actually, philosophically, ideologically, a moderate Republican, Democrat-in-Name Only (DINO), running as a Democrat, and therefore is vulnerable to defeat. However, under this road map to victory, the Republican candidate must be a true, real environmentalist to expect those 30,000 skeptical voters to join them. But, even if they sit out the election altogether, it should result in a Republican victory over traitor-to-environmentalists Tester.

Baum is a resident of Martin City.