HELENA -- A cornerstone of Sen. Conrad Burns' tough re-election campaign is the three-term incumbent's slogan that he is "delivering for Montana.''

Burns, a Republican with a coveted seat on the Senate check-writing panel, the Appropriations Committee, boasts that he has brought $2.2 billion to Montana and that money would disappear if voters replace him with Democrat Jon Tester.

A Lee Newspaper analysis of some $246 million federal dollars that Burns claims to have brought to one Montana city -- Butte -- shows that Burns' help in either earmarking or otherwise securing federal dollars for the city and its businesses is, indeed, substantial.

However, the analysis also shows:

n Lobbyists who formerly worked for Burns also play a role.

n Not all the money either came to or stayed in Montana.

n In at least one case, $1 million included in Burns' $2.2 billion figure never made it to Montana at all.

It is also unclear how much of the $246 million Burns brought to Butte completely on his own. Democratic Sen. Max Baucus said he also requested some $198 million of the same money. At least one local Butte economy official said Baucus is just as important to the city's economy as Burns.

Burns' $2 billion figure comes from the senator's own compilation, said Erik Iverson, a spokesman for Burns' campaign. At least some of the list was compiled using old press releases Burns sent out at the time the money was approved. The list was released to Lee Newspapers this fall and includes some 33 pages of more than 900 projects Burns said he either earmarked -- set aside for a specific project -- or otherwise secured for Montana. Most of the projects are from the early 2000s, while some stretch as far back as 1994. In Butte, the list included more than 90 projects (see sidebar).

Butte is home to a handful of companies that count on government contracts for a significant chunk of their income. A major part of the money Burns claims to have brought to Butte has gone to these companies.

One of the largest is MSE, a company that grew out of a grant secured decades ago by Montana's longtime Democratic Sen. Mike Mansfield, who once worked in Butte's mines.

The company now employs about 160 people in Butte -- with about 10 others scattered in offices out of state and has done work for a variety of government agencies, working mostly on defense and energy projects, said Jeff Ruffner, president of MSE.

Burns claims to have brought almost $178 million to MSE.

Ruffner said the company spends just over $10 million a year on payroll, paying an average salary of about $59,800. Last year, MSE spent $14.8 million on equipment and just over half of that -- $8.1 million -- was spent in the state of Montana. The rest, about $6.7 million, was spent out of state on any number of things, including subcontractors, Ruffner said.

Another Butte company Burns has brought money for is Resodyn Corporation, an outfit that, like MSE, depends on government contracts for a significant piece of its business.

Burns' brought more than $23 million in projects from the Defense and Energy departments to Resodyn, said company president Larry Farrar.

About 90 percent of the federal money stayed in Butte, Farrar said. The rest went to buy motors, pumps and other equipment that are not made in Butte or Montana.

With Burns' help, Resodyn has grown and the growth is obvious in Butte.

The company now manufactures equipment to sell to the military and industrial sectors and is creating jobs, Farrar said. Resodyn has 35 employees now and is in the process of hiring another 10 to 15 more.

The company bought a bankrupt Butte building for its headquarters and built a 23,000- square-foot manufacturing building, enhancing local tax revenue.

"There's not a lot of technology, industry, not a lot of things going on out here,'' Farrar said. "So the ability to secure these contracts has been really helpful to build a sustainable business.''

But the money Resodyn said it has received with Burns' help -- significant as it is -- is less than the amount Burns claims to have brought to the company. Several of the company's major contracts are several hundred thousand dollars lower, according to Resodyn, than the list provided by Burns' campaign.

Burns spokesman Iverson said the difference is due to the way different federal agencies divvy out money.

Burns' list reflects money the senator earmarked or otherwise set aside for Montana projects. But government agencies sometimes hold some of that money back, meaning the amount of money that actually ends up in Montana may be somewhat less than the total amount Burns set aside.

It is unclear how many of the more than 900 items on Burns' statewide list also include this discrepancy. MSE's Ruffner said Burns' figures for his company sounded about right.

In at least one case, money Burns claimed to have brought to Butte never made to Montana, at all. Burns' list includes $1 million in 2005 to an unnamed company to make special metals for the military. The money never came to Butte and was evidently included in the list as a mistake, according to a Burns spokesman.

Lobbying also seems to play a role. Of the $246 million Burns said he has brought to Butte, more than half -- about $117 million -- went to entities that employed Burns' former staff as lobbyists, according to federal lobbying records.

Resodyn's Farrar said he started working with Burns' office in 2003 -- the same year the company hired lobbying firm Van Scoyoc and Associates, where Randall Popelka, who had worked for Burns for seven years, was then working as a vice president. Popelka was one of the company's registered lobbyists until the middle of 2005, when he left lobbying and went back to Burns' office as a legislative director, a high-ranking aide.

Resodyn has paid the firm about $200,000, federal records show. Farrar said the company chose Van Scoyoc because the firm was recommended to him and because the firm was well-known, but still had clients in Montana.

MSE has also hired Burns' former staff as lobbyists. Federal records show the company employed Anderson & Baker from 1999 to 2000. Mark Baker is Burns' former legislative director. Baker is also the unpaid chairman on Burns' re-election campaign and served as its early spokesman.

MSE paid Anderson & Baker $120,000, Senate records show.

Since 2004, records show, MSE has retained Gage, a lobbying firm started by Burns' former chief of staff, Leo Giacometto. Gage employs several lobbyists who once worked at Burns' office.

So, far Gage has reported $205,000 in lobbing income from MSE, the latest figures show.

MSE's Ruffner said the company hired Gage because the outfit has "key knowledge'' of the kind of projects MSE works on. Asked if MSE would keep Gage as its lobbyist should Burns lose, Ruffner said he didn't know, but he added that all the company's lobbying contracts are reviewed at the end of each year and Ruffner can't say if any will be retained, regardless of elections.

MSE has more than one lobbying firm. The company also retains Patton Boggs, a major lobby house, and Kimmitt, Senter, Coates & Weinferter, another big lobbying firm with ties to both Democrats and Republicans.

Ruffner said his company works with all of Montana's three-man congressional delegation, but Burns, with his spot on the Appropriations Committee, is pivotal.

"They've all been fantastic,'' Ruffner said. "But with Senator Burns on appropriations, he takes the lead on funding."

In recent years, the company has been trying to diversify itself, becoming less dependent on any one source of income, including government money. Ruffner said the company "would survive'' if Burns lost the election, but the absence of the senator's appropriating power would hurt.

"It would have an impact not just to MSE, but to Butte and Montana,'' he said.

Burns' appropriations have been a boon to Butte and the state, said Marko Lucich, executive director of the Butte Chamber of Commerce. He said for the first time in 40 years, Butte's population is growing, even if the growth is relatively slight.

But Lucich doesn't give all the credit to Burns. He said Baucus, along with Rep. Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., have been a "huge part'' of helping the area, along with local state legislators.

"Sen. Baucus is very important too, equally important, he's done pretty much the same thing for our community,'' Lucich said.

"This is one piece of the puzzle,'' he said of Burns' appropriations. "I would say it has really helped us. Is this the sole factor? No, very definitely not.''

Iverson said the senator's work has helped changed Butte.

"Imagine what Butte is going to look like 15 or 20 years down the road because of the vision of people like (former MSE chief) Don Peoples and Conrad Burns and folks in Butte-Silver Bow County,'' he said. The entire delegation, Iverson said, is "helping Butte bridge their way to the new economy.''

Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said Burns' claims that the Republican is chiefly responsible for bringing home all the $2.2 billion including the $246 million for Butte is untrue.

"Montanans can replace Burns because Max Baucus, who has 30 years worth of seniority, will keep securing federal funds and fight along Jon Tester to do what's right for Montana,'' Kaiser said. "Max has been producing for Butte long before Conrad Burns went to Washington.''

Baucus, while not a member of the Appropriations Committee, is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, which handles federal taxation and a great chunk of federal money.

Iverson countered that Burns along with Republican Rehberg and Baucus "are one of the most effective teams in Congress.''

"It's silly to suggest that Montana would somehow be better off replacing a senator with 18 years seniority with a freshman senator who will be number one hundred,'' Iverson said.

Burns and Baucus are positioned to chair their own powerful Senate committees in coming years, Iverson said. But if Montanans replace Burns and Republicans hold the Senate Montana won't have its own committee chairman.

"You re-elect Conrad Burns, you are guaranteeing that Montana has a full committee chairman,'' he said. "That's a very, very powerful position for Montana.''

Coming Thursday: Sen. Max Baucus says he has delivered more federal money to Montana than Burns.