Last month I wrote in a print column that Measure 1 – which supporters refer to as the “ethics” or “anti-corruption” measure – is an affront to the 1st amendment. Here’s an excerpt: I would encourage you readers to go to the secretary of state website and read the text of the measure for yourself.…
Federal Appeals Court Allows North Dakota ID Law Heitkamp Described a “Suppression” to Be Enforced
According to a release from Secretary of State Al Jaeger’s office, today the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of a previous ruling in a lawsuit challenging North Dakota’s voter identification law. Previously the federal courts had ruled that North Dakota’s law, which said that only ID’s could be used to vote, couldn’t…
While Heitkamp Hides From Tough Questions Her Campaign Uses Cramer’s Accessibility Against Him
Last week and over the weekend the Democrats created some negative headlines for Senate candidate Kevin Cramer by clipping audio from the open phones segments he does on talk radio shows like mine and pitching the audio to the national media. For instance, NBC News used comments Cramer made about the oil export ban on…
Creating a Database of Where DUI Offenders Were Drinking Is a Terrible Idea
We already use a lot of very bad metrics when it comes to the public debate over driving drunk. For instance, everyone from reporters to law enforcement to policymakers likes to talk about drunk driving arrests, but what do arrests really tell us about actual on-the-road safety? Arrest numbers can go up and down based…
It’s Not the Government’s Job to Protect Businesses From Competition
Recently the city leaders in Velva, North Dakota – a small community to the southeast of Minot – voted down a bid from a developer to buy city land for the creation of a Dollar General store. It was the city which put the land on the market for sale in the first place, but…
If Marijuana Legalization Has Been So Bad for Other States, Why Have So Many of Them Done It?
When opponents of Measure 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota, make their case against the proposal they often cite statistics from other parts of the country where marijuana has been legalized. The intent is to provide for us a cautionary tale about how legalizing marijuana might go in our state. A recent…
Democratic Tax Commissioner Candidate Uses Video From Incumbent’s DUI Arrest in Campaign Ad
From the “what have you got to lose” department, long-shot Tax Commissioner candidate (and erstwhile chair of the North Dakota Democratic Party) Kylie Oversen has a new video ad out in which she uses video of incumbent Republican Ryan Rauschenberger’s DUI arrest to accuse him of lying. Oversen, who lost her legislative seat in the…
Will Doug Burgum’s Victory at the State Supreme Court Mean Yearly Legislative Sessions for North Dakota?
Earlier this year the state Supreme Court issued in opinion in ND Legislative Assembly vs. Governor Doug Burgum which found that both sides of that dispute had been operating beyond their constitutional restraints. The court struck down four of Burgum’s vetoes from the 2017 legislative session, but they also found that the Legislature itself had…
Legislature Re-Institutes Tribal Address After It Was Canceled During #NoDAPL Protests
Back in 2016, amid the violent protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, North Dakota state lawmakers opted to cancel the traditional address from a representative of the state’s tribes at their regular biennial session. Each legislative session typically begins with a state of the state address from the governor, an address from the judiciary, and…
Does Senator Heitkamp Condone Her Talk Radio Host Brother’s Ugly Comments About President Trump?
A major part of Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s re-election campaign has been posturing herself as an ally of President Donald Trump. From the earliest days of the marketing campaign to re-elect her, Heitkamp has touted that she’s voted with Trump more than half of the time. For a while Democrats and left wing commentators even tried…