Many groups of voters have hard decisions to make in 2008. Workers especially must look back over the past performance of office-holders before deciding who deserves their support.

Workers built the middle class through unions and progressive politics. But the middle class is now shrinking while the ranks of both the rich and the poor are growing. In our country, income for the very wealthiest families (the top 1 percent) has grown 78 percent over the past thirty years. The very rich are richer than ever before, but that wealth has not trickled down. Median family income has stagnated and the income for the bottom 20 percent of families has actually declined by 10 percent. In addition, the rich got BIG tax breaks but the middle class and the poor got crumbs. Warren Buffett, a self-made billionaire, says he pays less in taxes (17.7 percent) than his receptionist pays (30 percent).

Besides the imbalance in wealth and taxes, so-called "free" trade has devastated America's good-paying jobs for blue-collar workers. Now our high-tech workers are getting laid off too as American jobs are exported to other countries. Those countries have no labor or environmental regulations. "Free" trade only comes at the expense of jobs and the environment.

Against that background, one of the more interesting 2008 races could be Montana's Democratic U.S. Senate race, the office Max Baucus has held for 28 years. Max has been a big supporter of the World Trade Organization and "free" trade world-wide. It should come as no surprise then that a number of old-line Democrats and many new progressives have not been happy with Max's trade or tax policies over his last two terms.

Max's record includes these bills that add to the growing imbalance in the distribution of wealth in America:

- National minimum wage increase -- Max did not sign this bill for twelve years and then only passed it out of his Committee after he got one more tax break for business employers with up to 500 employees (so-called "small" business).

- Employee Free Choice -- one of the very last Democratic Senators to sign this bill which makes it easier to join a union.

- Alternative Minimum Tax -- has not supported repeal of this tax on the middle class.

- Prescription Drugs -- voted against importing drugs from Canada but still wants free trade.

- NAFTA -- voted for this "free" trade agreement.

- KFTA -- supported the Korean-U.S. "Free" Trade Agreement.

- Fast Track Trade Authority -- supported this policy that prevents Congress from amending "free" trade agreements.

- Bush tax cut #1 -- was the top Democrat to help pass this bill giving the largest tax cuts to the wealthiest families.

- Bush tax cut #2 -- supported another tax cut for the wealthiest families widening the gap between the super rich and the middle class even more.

- Estate tax -- first supported repeal of the estate tax on the super rich; then, under pressure, supported an extremely high waiver threshold before the tax applies.

- Medicare Part D -- the driving force behind this plan that pays drug companies and insurance companies billions of dollars in profits instead of filling the "doughnut hole" for Medicare recipients.

- National Health Plan -- only supports a national health plan done through private insurance companies instead of using that money to reduce health care costs for everyone.

- Glass-Steagall Act -- supported repeal of this banking law, a law that might have stopped the current credit crisis in the housing market.

- Usury law -- voted to repeal the federal banking and lending law that helped keep interest rates reasonable. After repeal, credit card companies could charge excessive rates and national banks set up "pay day" loan operations that charge low-paid workers up to 600 percent interest.

- Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005 -- supported this bill which literally put the working poor into serfdom.

It's a stretch for anyone to say that these votes and policies have benefited the middle class or the poor. With Max's big business and super rich voting record, where do the middle class and the working poor go in the 2008 elections? Will any Democrat step up to represent them? If not, will they simply "take a walk" like they did when John Melcher ignored their interests and lost his Senate seat because of it? It's time for the working people of Montana to take a hard look and demand more from their senator.

Gene Fenderson, Vice-President of the Progressive Democrats of Montana, is a retired labor leader and longtime political activist. He lives in Helena.