Montana Sen. Jon Tester rakes in cash after California soiree

Sen. Jon Tester represents bright-red Montana, but most of his re-election campaign money in the first three months of this year came from deep-blue California, Federal Election Commission filings show.

According to FEC data, the 66-year-old Tester raised more than $675,000 in the first quarter from Golden State-based donors, more than $61,000 of which followed a March 13 Palo Alto fundraiser with a partner from Silicon Valley Bank’s legal firm amid the financial institution’s historic collapse.

The senator’s campaign, ironically named Montanans For Tester, raked in nearly a quarter of its total itemized individual donations from California — more than any other state including Montana, from where Tester took a little more than $400,000.

The third-term lawmaker, who pitches himself on his campaign website as “a third-generation Montana dirt farmer who brings his Montana values with him to the US Senate,” announced in February he would seek re-election to a fourth-term.

The seat has become a high-value target for Republicans who want to take back the upper chamber in 2024 — with both of the state’s GOP congressmen, Matt Rosendale and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke publicly sizing up a Tester challenge.

Donors paid between $250 and $6,600 to attend the Palo Alto soiree, while Tester’s hosts ended up contributing more than $35,000 to his campaign that evening.

Many of the hosts maxed out their donations, including Greg Avis, cofounder of the venture capital firm Summit Partners, and his wife, Anne Avis, who previously served as a trustee at the foundation that helps fund NPR.

Michael J. Danaher, who represents SVB and venture capital clients for Palo Alto-based law firm Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, welcomed Tester to the shindig along with other tech executives and donors.

Tester also took $2,000 contributions from two donors — Matthew Tanielian and Joshua Ackil — who lobbied for SVB earlier this year, according to disclosure forms.

Other partners at Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati took on SVB as a client, and the firm recently provided guidance for its deep-pocketed list of international clients who may have been affected by the failure of the bank, which had $209 billion in assets.

In coordination with the Treasury Department, President Biden announced shortly after SVB’s collapse that his administration would bail out depositors, but promised taxpayers would not suffer from the fallout.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation later confirmed that First-Citizens Bank and Trust Company had agreed to buy up all of SVB’s deposits.

After SVB’s collapse, the second-largest bank failure in US history, the Democratic National Committee and President Biden’s 2020 campaign pledged to give back tens of thousands of dollars in political donations received from the bank and its executives.

Tester’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.