Democratic District Chair’s Letter to the Editor Is Factually Inaccurate

Yesterday I wrote about Democrats in Fargo’s District 11 appointing a replacement for former state Rep. Kris Wallman who has moved to California. In my post I pointed out that Wallman moved herself and her children to California will in advance of a deadline which would have required that seat be filled by a special election, instead of an appointment by her local political party, and that prompted an angry letter to the editor in the Fargo Forum today from District 11 chair Mitch Axness.

Humorously, he accuses me of getting the facts wrong while getting his own facts wrong.

“Wallman did not violate any residency laws as Port also implied in his article,” Axness writes.

It’s rather hard for me to imply something like that when I actually wrote the exact opposite.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]It’s rather hard for me to imply something like that when I actually wrote the exact opposite.[/mks_pullquote]

“What Democrats did here isn’t illegal,” is what my post actually said.

My point is that, while legal, a member of the Legislature delaying resignation in order to avoid letting the people decide on a replacement is fundamentally undemocratic.

And I’m right. Which probably why angry Axness, who really ought to be embarrassed, had to invent a false pretense upon which to criticize me.

Sometimes, when I catch my young daughter doing something wrong, she tries to distract from her misadventure by hurling accusations at her sister. Which is the sort of thing one expects from a child.

It’s disappointing to get that sort of reaction from an adult.

Also humorous is that Axness excuses his local party’s behavior by pointing out that Republicans have done the same. “This is the same state Century Code that was used when David Rust replaced John Andrist in 2014 and Vonnie Pietsch replaced Bill Pietsch in 2002,” he writes, as though two wrongs make a right.

I wasn’t writing this blog in 2002, and I’m sorry I missed an opportunity to be critical of Republicans in 2014. I guess it didn’t pop up on my radar back then.

But, again, none of this excuses the actions of Wallman and the District 11 Democrats.

I think what they did is wrong, and that the voters deserve better. That is my opinion, based on the facts I articulated accurately in my original post.