Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and her network of operatives and supporters are out to make me Public Enemy No. 1. The problem is that the senator’s approval numbers are tanking ahead of what promises to be the most vigorously contested election of her life. The solution, it seems, is to paint yours truly as a big,…
Podcast: Armstrong Says Schneider Is Campaigning “a Lot More Moderate Than His Voting Record”
On Friday I had U.S. House candidate Kelly Armstrong on my radio show. He and his Democratic opponent Mac Schneider squared off recently in a debate hosted by the North Dakota Newspaper Association. At that event Armstrong said something about voters having a choice between himself, a conservative Republican, and Schneider who is campaigning as…
Podcast: Responding to McFeely, Special Assessments, North Dakota Secession
I took some time on the radio show today to respond to criticism Mike McFeely has thrown at me for writing too often, and too critically, of his preferred candidate for the U.S Senate. I also spoke to Fargo City commission candidate Tim Flakoll about his plan for special assessments. Current Commissioner Tony Gehrig, who…
Tony Gehrig: The Dirty Little Secrets of Special Assessments
This guest post was submitted by Fargo City Commissioner Tony Gehrig Special assessments or “specials” have been around for a long time in Fargo. So long that people have come to accept them as an unchangeable reality. Despite being around since well before I was born, there are still some dirty little secrets that you…
Print Column: Making America Feel Great Again
MINOT, N.D. — Recently while interviewing Kelly Armstrong, a state Senator from Dickinson and a Republican candidate for North Dakota’s U.S. House seat, he told me that he doesn’t believe a “blue wave” is coming to North Dakota. That’s a term some commentators have used to describe the likelihood of Democratic gains this election year.…
Podcast: Cramer Says Rank-and-File North Dakota Democrats Are “Suffering Because of the Extremism” of Their Party
Congressman Kevin Cramer joined me on the radio show today for his weekly open phones segment. Democrats have been making a stink about a recent interview in which Cramer said the decisive factor which led him to run for the U.S. Senate was oil industry tycoon Harold Hamm pledging to fund raise for him. I…
Podcast: Democratic House Candidate Mac Schneider Declines to Say if He’d Have Voted for Obamacare
We talked about his recent debate with Republican opponent Kelly Armstrong and the impression many observers got (notably myself and columnist Mike Jacobs) that the two candidates didn’t really do much to contrast themselves. Schneider says he disagrees with Armstrong in several areas mentioning the expansion of corporate farming, Trump’s trade tariffs, and the state’s…
Rep. Scott Louser: North Dakota’s Voter ID Laws Protect the Ballot Box
This guest post was submitted by Rep. Scott Louser, a Republican from Minot A recent post on this blog referenced a political science professor assigning partisan motivation to the voter ID bill passed in 2017. As a Republican legislator, one of the sponsors of HB1369 (I prefer to call it the Voter Integrity Act) and…
Podcast: Tax Commissioner Defends Income Tax Cuts, Lawmaker Says Governor’s Office Audit Is a “Witch Hunt”
Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger was on the radio show today and responded to a Grand Forks Herald editorial suggesting the state had gone too far in cutting income taxes. The editorial suggested that successive cuts to income tax rates starting during the 2009 session have narrowed the state’s tax base making us more dependent on…
Print Column: Who Expected Sen. Heitkamp to Be in This Much Trouble This Early?
MINOT, N.D. — Last week Senate incumbent Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign rolled out her first video advertising of the election cycle. Like many observers, I was surprised to see that it was a rerun. An ad featuring Heitkamp and her family goofing on one another which the campaign used in 2012. Why would Heitkamp, at the…