I was not really that surprised to read in Politico last night that Congressman Denny Rehberg may be looking at running for the U.S. Senate in 2012.  The seat is currently occupied by Jon Tester.

Of course, there wasn’t confirmation from the Rehberg camp regarding the meeting with National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).  Maybe he was just having coffee?

It was kind of interesting that the story was not picked up by any Montana media until this morning.  The Flathead Beacon posted a story around 9:45 this morning.

Of course, the lefties were out in force because Rehberg is a threat to their man.  They should be concerned.  

Within 24 hours, one of the people hoping to beat Rehberg in 2010, Dennis McDonald, sent an e-mail saying Rehberg’s visit with the NRSC was “One More Reason to Beat Rehberg in 2010.”  Not to be outdone, the Montana Democratic Party sent out an e-mail asking  their party faithful to, “Remember when we all put everything we had into sending a dirt farmer from Big Sandy, MT to the U.S. Senate to stand up for regular, hard-working Montanans?”

They both asked for money.

Rehberg gave Senator Max Baucus a run for his money in 1996, losing 49.5% to 44.6% while two other candidates on the ballot took about 5% of the vote.  The only other time that Rehberg has been really challenged in a political race was when he was running for the open U.S. House seat in 2000.

Tester beat Senator Conrad Burns by 3562 votes in 2006 mostly due to Tester’s campaign being able to convince voters that Burns would be spending his next senate term behind bars in a Federal prison.  That was hardly the case, as Burns has been roaming free.  Now, many Montanans are not too happy with the current leadership in our nation’s capitol.  Another thing that put the 2006 Senate race in the bag for Tester was a Libertarian senate candidate who took 10,377 votes in the 2006 election.  If he wasn’t on the ballot, those votes would have mostly gone to Burns.

But that is water under the old bridge.

First term Senators are easier to pick off, so if the Montana GOP is going to win the seat, 2012 would be the best chance to get it done.  Rehberg’s the only viable candidate that can do it.

If Rehberg decides to run for the U.S. Senate, the jockeying for his House seat will be interesting.  Face it, the Montana Legislature is just not a hotbed of potential candidates like it once was (due to term limits), especially from the right side.  Although that is the case, many feel they are a gift from God placed here just for the people of Montana.

Over the past few terms, Denny Rehberg has been more involved in having face to face meetings with his constituents across the state, whereas Tester (and Baucus) have basically hidden from the citizens of Montana unless it was a coordinated event, mostly by invite.  Rehberg covers the same area as the Senators do with less staff and less funding, but he’s doing a better job.

The political atmosphere right now is ripe for Democrats to lose some seats in the upcoming 2010 election.  Only time will tell if that trend will continue in 2012.  With the 10.2% unemployment rate (highest in over 26 years), the majority party will surely suffer some loses in 2010.  There will need to be some moderate improvement in the economy for the Democrats to keep the majority in 2012.  The race for U.S. Senate seat in Montana will be interesting if (and only if) Rehberg decides to run.

Of course, the Western Word will keep watching this race, but there’s a 2010 election to get through first.

One final note, I just hope that if Rehberg decides to run, he will keep some of the idiots from the NRSC at a distance, and hopefully they will keep their silly commercials out of Montana.