Plain Talk: ‘I’m not interested in a feud with the attorney general’

MINOT, N.D. — A debate over a bill to implement what supporters call “presumptive minimum” sentences for certain crimes like fleeing or assaulting an officer, or possessing a gun during a grime, has grown surprisingly contentious in the Legislature.

There has been some bizarre procedural moves around the bill, including the chairman of the judiciary committee undermining his own committee’s vote on the bill, and a war of words between state Rep. Shannon Roers Jones, a Fargo Republican, and Attorney General Drew Wrigley.

Wrigley has questioned Roers Jones’ knowledge on criminal justice matters, while Roers Jones has accused Wrigley of inappropriately injecting a recent Bismarck case involving fleeing, and an officer-involved shooting, into a political debate.

“I’m not interested in a feud with the attorney general,” Rep. Roers Jones said on this episode of Plain Talk.

My co-host Ben Hanson and I also questioned Roers Jones on her feelings about this legislative session. “I feel the least satisfied overall about this session,” she said.

“On the whole I feel like we have spent entirely too much time and too much political capital on bills that impact tens of North Dakotans,” she added, addressing legislation dealing with things like book bans and pronouns.

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