MINOT, N.D. — North Dakota’s initiated measure process has become a venue for deep-pocketed special interests to hire local fronts, pay mercenaries to collect signatures, and then pound their issues into the heads of voters with big-money marketing campaigns. What was intended to empower grassroots activists to keep state government honest has turned into a…
Plain Talk: Fargo commission candidate says mayor’s emails to detectives crossed ‘ethical boundaries’
MINOT, N.D. — Ves Marinov serves the state of North Dakota as a member of the Highway Patrol. He’s also a citizen of Fargo who is running for a city on the city’s commission. He’s campaigning on a platform of addressing crime, eliminating special assessments, moving the city to a ward system for its elected…
Plain Talk: A new campaign to legalize marijuana in North Dakota
MINOT, N.D. — Medical marijuana is legal in North Dakota, having been approved by voters by way of a ballot measure. Recreational marijuana, however, has taken a rockier road. Multiple ballot measure campaigns have failed in the past. House Bill 1420, considered during the last legislative session, and which would have also implemented legalization of…
Plain Talk: Is approval voting in Fargo inspiring more candidates to run for office?
MINOT, N.D. — Ben Hanson made an interesting point on this episode of Plain Talk. He’s a former state lawmaker and candidate for the Cass County Commission, facing off against Tony Grindberg, who is another former state lawmaker. His race won’t be settled by approval voting, but he lives in Fargo where approval voting is…
Plain Talk: ‘Innovation over regulation’
MINOT, N.D. — “We all take it for granted,” says Sheri Haugen-Hoffart, talking about energy that’s reliably available and cost effective. She’s running for the Public Service Commission, and she’s the incumbent, only not really. She was appointed to the PSC by Gov. Doug Burgum a couple of months ago to replace Brian Kroshus who…
Plain Talk: On opening day we talk baseball, not politics
MINOT, N.D. — I’m a baseball nerd. And a political nerd. And as a person with a foot in both of those worlds, I can say that there’s a lot of overlap between the two. There’s just something about baseball that appeals to people who are also deeply interested in politics. Anyway, today is opening…
Plain Talk: ‘We can’t win as the old Democratic Party of the past’
MINOT, N.D. — “I would not vote for Nancy Pelosi” to be speaker of the House. So says Mark Haugen, who received the North Dakota Democratic-NPL’s endorsement at their state convention in Minot last month , and is currently running unopposed in the primary. He’s far from a cookie-cutter progressive candidate for the Dems. He’s pro-life, for…
Plain Talk: Not your typical North Dakota Democrat
MINOT, N.D. — “There are some problems within the Democratic party in North Dakota that we need to fix.” That’s according to Trygve Hammer, a Marine veteran from Velva who just accepted the Democratic-NPL’s endorsement to campaign for a seat on the Public Service Commission. He spoke about his candidacy on this episode of Plain…
Plain Talk: North Dakota’s Sierra Club doesn’t oppose carbon capture pipeline
MINOT, N.D. — The Sierra Club in other states, such as Iowa, is opposed to the Carbon Express pipeline, but not in North Dakota. They’re not against it. They’re also not for it. “If we voted, we would probably vote to oppose it,” Dr. Dexter Perkins, a member of the North Dakota chapter of the…
Plain Talk: A recap of the 2022 Democratic-NPL convention
Minot, N.D. — It’s over folks. The North Dakota Democrats have selected candidates for two Public Service Commission seats, Attorney General, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. They left campaigns for Tax Commissioner and Secretary of State unfilled. On this episode of Plain Talk, I talk with my regular co-host Chad Oban, a former executive director…