By Dustin Hurst ǀ Watchdog.org

HELENA —Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has made transparency a key campaign issue — while his staff works aggressively to limit his interaction with journalists and media.

Dustin Hurst

Tester, battling GOP U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg in a tight Senate contest, makes much of his dedication to transparency and openness in this campaign, and runs a website touting his commitment to those ideals.

Though the first-term Democratic regularly appears on the Democrat-friendly MSNBC, he rarely has time for local, less-friendly media outlets, going so far as to refuse all contact with critical local journalists.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester

Tester’s tactic of freezing out reporters who question him too closely isn’t strictly partisan. Where criticism is concerned, he’s an equal-opportunity offender.

George Ochenski, a top-flight progressive writer who recently joined The Missoulian, is the latest victim of Tester’s anti-openness crusade. Last month, Ochenski said that after writing columns critical of Tester’s votes on war funding, the Democrat’s team stopped replying to his calls and messages.

“I was critical of some of his votes on the war funding, and basically that was it,” Ochenski said June 13. “I kind of got cut off from his entire operation.”

Ochenski was talking to Voice of Montana radio show host Aaron Flint, also on Tester’s enemies list. Flint is a conservative talk radio host who worked for Tester’s predecessor, Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns. He regularly complains about the Democratic senator’s support of such programs as the federal stimulus and the president’s Affordable Care Act.

Radio host Aaron Flint

It’s also possible that Tester’s refusal to go on-record with Flint stems from the radio host’s revelation that Tester’s secrecy extends to his Montana constituents as well.

Last year, Flint reported that a 2010 Tester-organized town hall meeting in northern Montana for constituents was invite-only. Tester’s acolytes controlled the crowd, the media and the questions.

After a Tester spokesman dismissed Flint’s show as “right-wing radio” in a May 4 tweet, the radio host shot back in kind.

“Your boss is too afraid to come on and take calls, unlike Gov. (Brian) Schweitzer,” Flint responded, noting the Democratic governor’s open-door policy where critics are concerned. “Keep shopping for softball (interviews).”

The senator is famous for stocking his Washington, D.C., townhouse freezer with Montana-raised beef, but back home he fills his ice chest with journalists.

Joining Ochenski and Flint in Tester’s deep freeze is Phil Drake. My colleague at Montana Watchdog, Drake tells me Tester’s staff doesn’t return emails or phone requests for comment.

I am the fourth member of Tester’s freezer gang. Since starting this job April 1, Murphy has answered just one of my countless calls. Even then, he wouldn’t provide any information about the senator and did not follow up on the single question he entertained.

Murphy is the operative tasked with hiding Tester’s speeches from less-than-friendly folks. He helped sneak Tester out the back of a Butte fundraiser to avoid questions. With the help of Bill Lombardi, Murphy closed Tester’s speech at the Montana Democratic Party’s convention last month.

The censorship campaign is at odds with Tester’s marketing. In early May, Tester’s campaign released a television ad dubbed “Jon Tester: Unprecedented Ethics and Accountability.”

His campaign also runs TesterEthicsRules.com, a website touting the Democrat’s ethics studies performed by retired Montana judges.

But Tester misrepresented the ethics reports, too.

All three judges gave Tester high makes for stringent ethics and accountability practices in his official duties, but the Democrat – and remarkably the judges themselves – failed to disclose that one donated to his 2006 campaign and another served as a Democrat in the Montana Legislature.

Only one judge showed no obvious ties to Tester’s campaign.

Tester’s team clearly demonstrates a campaign can say one thing while doing the opposite. While claiming openness, campaign staffers are shutting doors on reporters. As they tout transparent office workings, Tester’s folks are less-than-clear about who is auditing their practices.

And while bragging about “Unprecedented transparency,” Tester and crew are providing the most closed-off campaign in recent Montana history.