North Dakota Democrats are getting another candidate for the U.S. House, but it’s not happening without some internal strife. Mac Schneider, former Minority Leader in the state Senate, is expected to announce a campaign on Tuesday next week. Former state Representative Ben Hanson has already been campaigning for that seat for months now. State Senator…
There Is No Version of Reality in Which a $600 Million Tax Hike Is Really a Tax Cut
Democrats really, really want “Republicans cut taxes for big oil” to be a viable part of their political platform heading into the 2018 election cycle. The big obstacle they face is that it isn’t a true statement. What they’re hoping is that if they just keep repeating the claim, over and over again, the public…
Anna Woodcock: How Republicans Unseated Democratic Leaders in Grand Forks
2016 has been the year of political upsets. President-elect Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, the Republicans were able to maintain control of the US Senate, and the vast majority of political pundits were wrong at every turn. But in Grand Forks, a campaign upset was brewing that almost nobody saw coming. Kylie Oversen was a…
National Political Trends Do Not Entirely Explain Why North Dakota Democrats Lost
On election night North Dakota’s Democrats got slaughtered. They didn’t have a statewide candidate – up to and including Hillary Clinton – crack 30 percent on the statewide ballot. To put that in context President Barack Obama – not exactly a favorite in the Peace Garden State – got 38 percent of the vote in…
UPDATED: Democrats, University of North Dakota Seek Digital Safe Space for Students to Protect Them From Republicans
Back during the 2014 election cycle North Dakota Democrats engaged in some rank political grandstanding, claiming that a Republican-aligned marketing firm had somehow violated the law by obtaining a directory of student email addresses from the North Dakota University System through an open records request and then sending messages to those accounts. The Democrats –…
Democrats May Introduce Bill to Raise Oil Tax During Special Session
On Tuesday next week North Dakota lawmakers will convene in Bismarck for a special session called earlier this month by Governor Jack Dalrymple. The proceedings will kick off with an address from Dalrymple at 9:30am, at which point he’ll apparently lay out what his specific priorities are for fixing the budget shortfall which necessitated the…
Democrats Offer “Responsible Alternative” to Special Session Bill They Haven’t Even Seen Yet
The Democrats have announced that they will be announcing a “reasonable alternative” to the Republican plan for the special session Governor Jack Dalrymple called next month. That would be a “reasonable alternative” to something the Republicans haven’t even made public yet. If you needed evidence that North Dakota’s thoroughly-marginalized and mostly irrelevant Democrats are interested…
Democrat Minority Leader Mac Schneider: I’m Right About Oil Taxes in an Alternate Version of Reality
Last week I called out Senator Mac Schneider and Rep. Kenton Onstad for a wildly inaccurate claim they made in a newspaper column, which is that Republican-backed oil tax reform was costing the state $11 million per month in revenues. Here’s a direct quote from what they wrote: “The oil extraction tax cut, ramrodded through…
North Dakota Democrats Spread Wildly Inaccurate Information About Oil Tax Collections
Yesterday Governor Jack Dalrymple announced that he would be calling state lawmakers back to Bismarck for a special session to run from August 2-4. This move has prompted a lot of criticism of Republican handling of budget issues, some of it fair and some of it not so fair. One consistent talking point I’ve heard…
North Dakota Democrats Think You’re Not Paying Enough in Taxes
The drift of North Dakota’s Democrats into political irrelevance often gets blamed on how far left their national party has gone. It’s hard to win elections in North Dakota when your fellow Democrats nationally are advancing (as one example) a federal regulatory regime which would be devastating for North Dakota’s primary industries. But there is…