North Dakota Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger pulled off a rare feat in the modern era of American politics. Earlier this year he confessed to me that he was struggling with alcohol addiction. He then left the campaign trail for a month to seek treatment before coming back and soundly defeating his opponent, Democrat Jason Astrup,…
Democrats, Republicans Pouring Money Into Taylor vs. Goehring Race
I took a look at the latest 48-hour reports on the Secretary of State website, and things haven’t changed much since the last time I looked about 10 days ago. The race for Agriculture Commissioner has become the battleground among the statewide races. State law requires that 39 days before election day that campaign committees report…
SAB/VNL Poll: Ryan Rauschenberger Leads Jason Astrup 37-31
The race for Tax Commissioner is without a doubt the hardest to handicap this election season. At the beginning of the election cycle this race seemed like a near certainty for Republicans. Their candidate is incumbent Ryan Rauschenberger, who was appointed to his position by Governor Jack Dalrymple replacing former Tax Commissioner Cory Fong who…
SAB Poll: 70 Percent Think North Dakota Is On The Right Track
This coming week I’ll be releasing results for our statewide elections as well as Measures 1 and 5 from polling sponsored by SayAnythingBlog.com and Valley News Live. The polling was conducted by DFM Research out of Minnesota which has a strong track record of polling in the state, including calling the 2012 Senate race between…
Democrats Seem To Think Ryan Taylor Is Their Only Shot At Statewide Victory
At this stage in the election cycle there is a lot of punditry going on about which candidates will win and which will go down. There’s also public polling which may or may not be accurate, and which may or may not be conducted by people with an agenda. But there’s a cliche about actions…
Forum Poll: Ryan Rauschenberger Leads Jason Astrup 34-20 With 41 Percent Undecided
It’s clear that Republican Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger’s admitted addiction to alcohol and month away from the campaign trail to seek treatment has hurt him in the eyes of the public. Forum Communications/University of North Dakota polling shows him at 34 percent. But what hasn’t happened, it seems, is a shift in support to his…
Hey Democrats: Rachel Maddow's Outrage Won't Help You Win In North Dakota
If you had asked me, at the end of 2013, what Democrats would be campaigning on in 2014 I probably would have told you oil industry impacts. Rail delays. Housing issues. I would not have said student loans, a Republican marketing firm requesting public student information, and Kevin Cramer filming an ad in a veterans…
Ryan Rauschenberger Returns, Talks Struggles With Alcohol
Fargo Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki has a good report about Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger returning from alcohol treatment to take up the duties of his office and campaign once again. Overall, it seems Rauschenberger is doing a good job of handling the questions about his alcohol addiction, though this jumped out at me as problematic: Rauschenberger…
Jason Astrup Runs Brutal Ad Saying Rauschenberger Too "Impaired" To Be Tax Commissioner
I guess the gloves are off when it comes to Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger’s struggles with alcohol addiction. Rauschenberger has repeatedly been out of state seeking treatment since SayAnythingBlog.com broke the news about his struggles with alcohol addiction. Immediately after that announcement Democrats treated the issue of his alcohol issues with kid gloves. Well, no…
NDGOP Statewide Candidates Cash Advantage, But Dems Close In Ag Commission Race
The candidates for statewide office in North Dakota have filed the pre-general general election reports, and to the extent that fundraising can tell us anything, it appears as though most Republican candidates have a pretty major advantage over Democrats heading into November. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers from the pre-general reports. All Republicans vs.…