There have been a lot of national headlines devoted to North Dakota’s voter ID law, recently upheld in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Most of it promotes the idea that the voter ID law suppresses the Native American vote in our state. Get a load of these headlines from a Google News search: Some of…
Heitkamp’s Defense of Her Attack on Cramer’s Salary Was So Dumb It Was Kind of Funny
If you missed last night’s debate between North Dakota Senate candidates Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer you can watch the whole thing below. I’m not sure anything happened last night to change the trajectory of this race. Both candidates hit their talking points, but there weren’t really any resonant moments likely to move a lot…
North Dakota resident Lexi Zhorela, a sexual assault survivor outed in Senator Heidi Heitkamp's recent print ad, speaking during a CNN interview. YouTube
Heitkamp Runs Apology Ad in Newspapers, but Some Victims Outed by Her Campaign Haven’t Heard From Her Yet
In today’s Minot Daily News is this print ad from Senator Heidi Heitkamp, apologizing for that previous print ad which outed a number of sexual assault survivors without their knowledge or permission: .@HeidiHeitkamp running this newspaper ad apologizing for ad outing sexual assault survivors (pic from the @MinotDailyNews). Meanwhile, some of those outed women say…
Senator Heitkamp Needs to Be Clear About How Her Campaign Re-Victimized Those Sexual Assault Victims
Last night we learned that Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign had fired a staffer involved in that now infamous “open letter” ad which identified perhaps as many as two dozen sexual assault survivors who didn’t give their permission to be identified. Heitkamp says the termination is just the beginning of her review into what happened, but…
Women Say Heitkamp Campaign Identified Them as Sexual Assault Survivors Without Their Permission
Recently Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign ran an ad (see below) formulated as an open letter sent to Congressman Kevin Cramer by survivors of sexual assault. The letter purports that some of Cramer’s recent comments about the controversy surrounding the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh were insensitive, but at least four of the women…
Tribal Governments Should Take Some Blame Over the Voter ID Issue
What I’m about to write is going to be anathema to some because, as I pointed out in my Sunday column, a big part of Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign strategy right now is painting North Dakota’s voter ID law as some nefarious Republican plot to suppress the Native American vote. Heitkamp is no doubt hoping…
Now for Some Good News: State of North Dakota Getting Their Online Act Together
My job is to write critically about things in government. Politicians and campaigns. Public policy. Waste and abuse of taxpayer resources. That sort of thing. But every once in a while even I get tired of that. So when I read this article about the efforts the State of North Dakota is making in providing…
Trump Tax Cuts Result in Money Back From Electric Company and No Rate Hikes for Three Years
Senator Heidi Heitkamp voted against the Trump tax cuts arguing they wouldn’t be all that beneficial for the economy. Back during her 2012 campaign she called for higher taxes. During the 2016 election cycle Heitkamp campaigned hard for Hillary Clinton who said that President Trump’s policies “would throw us into a recession.” But right now the…
Heidi Heitkamp Calls for Civility While Running Campaign Ads Calling Her Opponent an Extremist
Senator Heidi Heitkamp says she disagrees with erstwhile presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s claim in a CNN interview that, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.” “That’s ridiculous,” Heitkamp said in her own CNN interview with Anderson Cooper. “I mean I can’t imagine how you get anything…
Report: As Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp Didn’t Push for Prosecution of Sexual Assault and Abuse in the 1990’s
A bit of a bombshell from Fox News this morning: North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp did not push to prosecute individuals responsible for physical and sexual abuse of students when she was the state’s Attorney General, with one accused school employee subsequently sexually assaulting a child. Heitkamp, who served as the North Dakota’s attorney general…